http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/inde...footb.html

Anyone following this?

I'm beginning to think mlive needs to turn off the comment section on all articles regarding school employees, players, students, and board members. It's like throwing gasoline on the fire.

120 comments on this article, and another dozen in the follow up one today. And apparently multiple posts have been deleted by the mlive mod.

Why do you think they have comment sections in the first place, for "community interaction?" No, for page views. Just like how if it bleeds, it leads. And it provides fodder for journalism jobs, I can't complain.

BTW, the coach is basically breaking the law and needs to be fired, if not arrested.

What's bizarre is all those people out there in Hooterville know one another, which poster is Dip?

Is there a pool?

You have no idea what a joke Julie Mack is. Her connection to the education field, which she claims to be an expert on is so laughable you'd fall out of your chair if I told you. She's doing what every reporter at the Gazette is doing. Stirring the pot in the hope that the editor in GR takes notice and either moves her up the Booth food chain or makes sure she's retained when Booth does their next round of cuts.

Quote:Post: #4RE: Schoolcraft
You have no idea what a joke Julie Mack is. Her connection to the education field, which she claims to be an expert on is so laughable you'd fall out of your chair if I told you. She's doing what every reporter at the Gazette is doing. Stirring the pot in the hope that the editor in GR takes notice and either moves her up the Booth food chain or makes sure she's retained when Booth does their next round of cuts.

I KNEW IT!! So which poster are you?

AKA she doesn't toe the line with CD/CD1's thoughts on education reform in SW MI.

Must be somebody who disagrees with The Dipper.

Mack has won several awards for reporting on education.

Quote:AKA she doesn't toe the line with CD/CD1's thoughts on education reform in SW MI.

She doesn't toe any line. She's a borderline gossip columnist with an ax to grind. Her connection to education, outside of having a couple of kids go through the system is that her husband has a degree in education. He was a substitute teacher for a few years and finally got a job in KPS. He was canned after two years. There's your expert.

She's been known to camp out in superintendents driveways to get a quote, and in fact did so for this story, where she waited in the Mattawan Sups driveway to get a quote about the football coach at Schoolcraft. His quote, "Julie, I don't know what you're talking about. I don't pry into Schoolcraft's business." Funny though, that didn't make the paper.

Fact is I often agree with her. The problem is, she's often stating the obvious. Stuff I've already read elsewhere, and claiming it as her own. She's like every reporter at the Gazette these days, she's looking over her shoulder wondering how she can hang on to her job. Solution Write a borderline gossip column about nothing, stir the pot, and hope something sticks and she can add it to her resume.

"borderline gossip column about nothing"?!

A teacher or coach slapping, or "roughing up" kids, is not "nothing."

There is no reason, rationale, or excuse for that to happen. And it is a documented fact, not gossip or even "allegedly".

And obviously it's news because it has strirred significant controversy in a town close to Kalamazoo-Portage that is known for strong sense of community and pride in its school system, including athletics.

You look foolish in trying to discredit the messenger here.

What would happen if YOU slapped a kid in your classroom to "motivate" him/her?

Quote:And obviously it's news because it has strirred significant controversy in a town close to Kalamazoo-Portage that is known for strong sense of community and pride in its school system, including athletics.

Breaking News!!!!!! It happened 7 months ago, and was public knowledge then. And it's been blown entirely out of proportion.

Funny, it's only news when 7 months after it happens a hack reporter from the Gazette tries to make it news.

This was kind of like you saying to a co-worker, "I'd like to kill that kid." The tone doesn't translate, but taken literally it makes you out to be potential murderer. People are soooooo being played by the media on this. Haas is a great teacher and his players love him. Disgruntled parents you say???? Shocking !!!!!

The biggest windbag in all of this is our part time Barney Fife cop, who is also president of the local Little League. It' a small town. My neighbor won 3 state championships in two sports. My barber cuts the hair of every kid on the football and basketball team. It only takes a couple of conversations with the right people to cut through the smalltown politics and get to the truth.

I agree that the situation has been addressed by administration and that there appear to be people in community who don't want to let it go for motives other than disagreeing with their handling of it.

I will say this, 15+ years ago, nobody bats an eye at this. And don't take that as i am defending his actions. Times are much different.

Moral to the story: Never sit in the front row. Anywhere.

(04-02-2012 08:09 AM)EA3 Wrote:  I will say this, 15+ years ago, nobody bats an eye at this. And don't take that as i am defending his actions. Times are much different.

Shoot, I only played through sophomore year (realized I wasn't going to get much pt ever and decided to pick up drinking instead) and about half my coaches would have been disciplined for this.

I had a coach who was so intense he actually threw his hat on backwards and tackled us. We were in full pads and helmets, and he was in his coaching threads. Only happened once or twice, but still.

Heck, I remember an old jayvee coach who was probably around 30 or so. He got dressed up in full pads and practiced with the jayvee squad. I was on varsity at the time. And this guy was pretty darn ripped...and an all conference linebacker in his day. I couldn't believe the head coach let him do it.

Jeeze, our coaches made Bobby Knight look level headed. Jr and High School, Motown will attest to that.

They could have given a course on corporal punishment.

In 2012 Mendon has 20 year old graduated playerss dress in full pads as their practice squad and no one there bats an eye. It is all in what u think is important. I would be fired for what Hass did but I coach in a much different climate. Fact is there are still some places in this state that you can coach like it is 1973. But you are not preparing kids for the real world they live in.

We had a football coach who was famous for two things: You never were allowed to drink water at practice, and practice never ended until someone was bleeding.

One of the players, during August 2-a-days in the heat, went into convulsions due to heat stroke. He had to be packed in ice at the hospital and damn near died. The doctor came into the locker room after practice the next day and SCREAMED at the coach about the lack of water. We got water the next practice, but were back to normal after that. Never heard a word from a parent. Hell, we would have thought nothing of a few headslaps. When I got to college I thought I was in heaven because we could get water any time we wanted.