Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, May 21, 1995                   TAG: 9505200027
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: G2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

WHINERS ANONYMOUS

So should school administrators cushion the little darlings who don't win by keeping the vote tallies a secret? Incredibly, a Fairfax County Circuit Court judge says yes - siding with school officials who contend that election losers shouldn't suffer the embarrassment of having voting totals made public.

What an awful insult to high-school kids to portray them as tender-headed, thumb-sucking, gritless wimps.

And what a crummy lesson in civics and democracy: The political process is a fearsome thing with dreadful and potentially damaging consequences, and the only reason for participation is to win.

Fairfax County's systemwide practice of protecting the vanquished in student-government elections hit the courts when the editor of the student newspaper at Centreville High School challenged it under the state's Freedom of Information Act. The 18-year-old, represented by his lawyer father, argued that student-election voting totals are a matter of public interest, and should be disclosed.

Judge Gerald B. Lee ruled, however, that the tallies are ``academic'' records of a personal nature, similar to school disciplinary reports and grade cards, and are thus exempt from FOI provisions.

They may or may not be legally exempt. In either case, like the student editor, we fail to see how the tallies are any more personal than the scores in interscholastic athletic contests, which are widely reported in the media. Why, pray, are election results more hurtful to contenders' self-esteem than published records telling how many times a player struck out or committed errors?

Ah, but school principal Pam Latt testified: The voting totals can inflict upon a trounced student the sense that he or she is worthless, ``an absolute failure.'' Disclosing them would inhibit students from running for office for fear of losing and becoming a laughing stock.

Never mind that it might also sharpen competitive instincts, stiffen losers' resolve to try harder next time, and give them the gumption to hang in until they succeed. All kids experience defeat at one time or another. They have to learn to deal with it, to learn from it. It profits them not at all to be treated by adults like little hot-house flowers that will wilt and perish if exposed to the real world.

And let's not forget: Some of this nation's finest leaders were once election losers.