For Watertown's school board, rules are made to be broken

Teacher don't you fill me up with your rules. Everybody knows that smoking ain't allowed in school.

JAN. 6, 2010: The Watertown City School Board did not turn in its finest performance last night. In fact, it sent a lousy message to the 4,000 students in the district.

Last night the board learned that the high school's athletic department has been placed on probation for allowing the boys' basketball team to conduct a scrimmage with alumni players. http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/article/20100106/SPORTS02/301069944/-1/sports

No sanctions were imposed by the Frontier League, although another violation of league rules could result in forfeiture of games.

But at least two board members were more concerned that somebody from another school district snitched to league officials about the illegal scrimmage. (The Times mentioned the scrimmage in a December story so any league official could have figured it out on his own).

Every day teachers and principals face the same dilemma with students who violate rules and are turned in by other students. Instead of acknowledging the error and vowing to amend their ways, accused students are often more concerned that somebody ratted them out.

And while we're speaking about violating rules, the board went into executive session last night without properly announcing the reason, which is a violation of the state's Open Government law. Yes, President Pete Monaco was absent and he generally runs a tight ship. But that is no reason for everyone else on the board to ignore the rules.

(How to run a meeting can be found if you http://www.dos.state.ny.us/coog/Right_to_know.html )

Good examples start at the top. If the school board won't follow the rules, why should anyone else in the district act differently?