Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 10, 1993 TAG: 9302100365
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
TAZEWELL
TAZEWELL COUNTY'S School Board showed the kind of guts Monday night that any football team would be glad to muster on a playing field.Despite a string of testimonials from impassioned supporters of Richlands High School football coach Dennis Vaught, the board apparently decided, by a 4-1 vote, that honesty and fair play and the educational transmission of good values are more important than an unbeaten season and a state championship. The board suspended Vaught, at least for the 1993 season.
Whereupon an anguished cry went up from the crowd: "What a crock." "We'll remember this at election time."
Come on. A one-year suspension from coaching is at best minimal punishment for Vaught, who not only played his team with unsafe equipment, but took grudging responsibility for his poor judgment only after getting caught in a lie about it.
(And he still tries to spread the blame, outrageously and without basis, by accusing Salem High School of playing with the same illegal equipment.)
The School Board would have been justified in firing him.
As it is, Vaught will keep his job teaching economics and keyboarding at Richlands High. Supporters who profess to care not about his 14-0 record but about the man and his family should be relieved about that.
The loss of his coaching duties will be a sacrifice for him, but as one of his backers said, some penalty must be paid. Was it to be only the written reprimand that he had received? How heavily would that have weighed on him and on the community?
After announcing the one-year suspension, the School Board chairman said it was possible Vaught could return to coaching after the '93 season. But after the year is up, the board should try to determine, at the least, whether the coach has learned anything of value from this episode.
Members will have to decide all over again whether the drive he brings to winning on the field comes at the expense of more important lessons their young people need to learn. It would be entirely proper, then, to continue his suspension.
Meanwhile, the people of Tazewell County should indeed remember board members' votes when election time rolls around. Acting on principle isn't always popular. It can be painfully difficult in a small community where most everybody knows everybody else.
Did these elected officials not show the kind of courage parents want in those making important decisions about their children's education?
The Tazewell board voted to stick to an ethical standard, yet by no means did it act harshly. On the contrary: Despite the cries from Monday night's crowd, the board acted in a way to allow healing to begin.
If the electorate chooses, in time, to boot out members who voted for Vaught's suspension, well, that should cause them no feelings of regret. They've already shown they know it's not whether you win or lose that counts.