Post-Game Punches In The Pub

Scan Ted Silary’s webpage for long enough and you’ll find a wealth of information on Philadelphia high school sports. But nothing — not even this baseball box score where Washington stops batting after five innings — tops Silary’s wealth of information on basketball. And the best stories and best nicknames always come out of the Public League.

The Pub has been in the news this week after a Sayre High School punched his coach after a game. He and his father were arrested.

Sayre coach Eric Hooks, though, is all understanding and such about being punched in the back of the head. Wow, coaching at a Public League high school and he’s turning the other cheek like Jesus!

“I feel for the young man,” Hooks said. “I don’t look upon this as being his fault.”

He added, “Generally speaking, I don’t feel this young man had good adult leadership. He was led down the wrong path. If not for the actions of certain adults, I don’t feel the situation would have come to that.”

Another coach, though, who came forward and said he was punched out last summer — by a parent upset his son was cut from the squad two years ago — went the woe-is-society route:

Elsewhere in the city yesterday, another Public League coach read about Hooks’ terrible experience and cringed.

“It brought it all back. Right there,” the coach said. “You keep asking, ‘What is this world coming to?’ “

Meanwhile, Sayre’s only 5-4 in the Pub’s third level. Hey, all that coach’s understanding has barely given the team a winning record! I bet that second coach’s team is awesome.

Meanwhile, I just did a quick scan of Ted Silary’s January Public League recaps and here are my favorite nicknames: Carl “Shiny Sneakers” Guignard, Cedrick “Bird Legs” Powell, Andre “He’s a Freshman!” Horne, Dan “The” Plummer, Courtney “Let Me Upgrade You” Havens-Dobbs. Thanks to that last kid, that song is stuck in my head again.

Kids Will Have To Cut School To Attend Obama’s Inauguration

I woke up this morning to the soothing sounds of KYW 1060 and heard that school superintendent Arlene Ackerman and her staff had been agonizing over a decision. Mike DeNardo reported Ackerman said it was an “excruciating decision.” What was it, you ask? Why, naturally, whether to close schools on Inauguration Day!

Naturally, schools will be open on Jan. 20, and “a curriculum is being developed for every grade level.” Ackerman says she hopes all the kids get a chance to watch it live, in school. (Chances of this happening: 0%. Prove me wrong, Arlene!)

If that does happen, it’s probably the best of both worlds. Kids whose parents drive them down to Washington, D.C., and get stuck in traffic somewhere in Maryland, will have excused absences for the day.

Schools in Phila. Will be Open on Inauguration Day, Jan. 20 [KYW 1060]

Hi, Haters

A story in today’s Inquirer details the efforts of two Philadelphia Academy Charter School parents; Megan Snyder Galo and Lisa George were alarmed by problems with the school’s administration.

Turns out the school’s founder and its CEO may have used school funds for personal gain; they’ve both been fired.

And here’s how the two whistleblowers were thanked!

George said she was shunned in the school yard by a parent who told her she had to step away because she didn’t want to be seen standing near one of the “troublemakers.” Others accused them of trying to hurt the school and called them “the haters.” Even their children felt it.

“Some of their kids’ friends wouldn’t be friends with them anymore,” said one staff member who did not want to be quoted by name.

Oh, what a happy age we live in, when parents are now calling each other haters.

Mothers whistled up a storm at charter [Inquirer]

School District Never Expels Anyone

Hey! Did you notice that little gem apparently dumped right at the start of the weekend, where nobody would see it? Fortunately, I’m a loser who reads the media on the weekend, and I did.

KYW 1060 reports school district officials are going to start expelling students in violent incidents, instead of just sending them to Shallcross or wherever. But here’s the fun fact: Nobody has been expelled in the past three years.

Despite thousands of violent incidents over the last three years, no Philadelphia students were expelled. Those who were disciplined were sent to alternative disciplinary schools.

Mayor Nutter told the SRC this week he couldn’t fathom that: “I believe upwards of 20 percent of our schoolteachers had some form of assault or aggressive activity against them last year. And how no child in the school district could have been expelled from school is impossible for me to understand.”

We should probably separate the “assault” from the “aggressive activity” but: Um, wow. Pretty awesome.

Phila. Public Schools to Enforce Strict Discipline [KYW 1060]