ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, October 19, 1996 TAG: 9610210064
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ROBERT O'HARROW JR. THE WASHINGTON POST
SECOND PLACE wasn't good enough for the Thomas Jefferson band directors. But their conduct was reprehensible.
When the second-place award was presented to the marching band from Virginia's prestigious Thomas Jefferson High School at a statewide competition, band leader Kent Baker didn't accept it with a song in his heart.
In front of hundreds of students and parents gathered on a high school football field in Virginia Beach, Baker, 31, threw the gleaming trophy in a trash can.
The band's other director, Phil Simon, 49, wasn't the picture of grace, either. He began arguing with the judges, saying his musicians deserved first place. After an official from another school retrieved the trophy from the trash, Simon refused to take it.
Both directors were suspended and have since apologized to students, parents and school administrators in a series of meetings over the last two weeks. But the Sept. 28 incident is still reverberating, with some parents and officials calling it an example of bad sportsmanship that rivals the case of Roberto Alomar, the Baltimore Orioles second baseman who spit on an umpire.
What's especially embarrassing, many say, is that the incident involved Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Fairfax, a school for academically gifted students that consistently produces more National Merit semifinalists than any other high school in the country.
``I'm personally outraged by it,'' said Carol Condit, whose husband is president of the marching band boosters group at Thomas Jefferson. ``It is inexcusable for any adult to act that way in front of a child. And especially for a teacher at Thomas Jefferson, supposedly a premier school in the U.S.''
Principal Geoffrey Jones, in addition to suspending Baker and Simon, required them to present a plan showing how they would tone down the competitiveness of the school's marching band program. Their suspensions ended Thursday.
``Look at the Roberto Alomar case,'' Jones said. ``Competition can be marvelous for kids, but it can destroy as well.''
In an interview this week, Baker called the episode ``a lapse of judgment on my part.'' He said he was frustrated that the eight judges had not recognized how well his musicians played a 10-minute series of pieces by Dmitri Shostakovich.
``We felt they hit a home run musically,'' said Baker, who took the part-time job of marching band director this year and also plays French horn for the Air Force Band. ``It was the best performance I have ever seen them give.''
Simon, who has been the school's full-time band director for 12 years and oversees its music department, said he had no comment beyond what he wrote in his letter of apology.
``By throwing our second-place trophy in the trash, a rash, impetuous, totally inappropriate act, we embarrassed the entire [Thomas Jefferson] community and insulted everyone associated with the competition,'' Simon wrote in the letter, which was sent to the parents of band members.
Simon went back to Virginia Beach this week to apologize to the hosts, and he picked up the trophy.
Although marching bands face growing pressure from directors and parents to win competitions, Baker and Simon's furious reaction shocked everyone who witnessed it, said Dale Kittle, the band director at Bayside High School in Virginia Beach. Bayside sponsored the contest among 19 bands, which was won by Virginia Beach's Princess Anne High School.
``I was astounded at their behavior,'' Kittle said. ``You win some, you lose some. You have to learn to lose gracefully.''
Jones said he had held at least five meetings with Baker and Simon, students, parents and others about the direction of the band and that there will be more in the coming weeks.
Some students said they would rather put the incident behind them. William Fox, the drum major and band student leader, said the suspensions and public apologies ought to be enough. Fox said the musicians look forward to having Baker back in time for a competition at James Madison University today.
``He's an absolutely incredible marching band instructor,'' Fox said. ``This happened. We learned from it. But we don't have to keep beating it over and over again.''
But other Jefferson students say it might not be so easy for people to forget about the outburst. D.J. Moore, 17, who is not in the band, said parents, students and administrators are still talking about several acts of vandalism committed by Jefferson students last spring.
Moore said Jefferson administrators had promised to make this the year of ``respect, responsibility and integrity.''
``They wanted to make this sort of the year of ethics,'' Moore said. ``Unfortunately, actions like this do sort of tarnish that focus.''
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