[Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.]

Since Daryl and I are leaving for Hartford, CT, on Friday morning to officiate in the Starters Girls' Spring Classic, I thought that I should respond again before I leave.


Mick stated: "Many socio-economic-environmental factors may come into play. The kid may know better; perhaps he may not. The kid may have been taught to react better; perhaps, he was not."

I refuse to accept Mick's conclusion. The player in the original post is 17. This young man does know what are good manners. Just ten days after the Columbine shootings, I was substitute teaching an 8th grade math class at East Toledo Jr. H.S. (a jr. H.S. in the Toledo Public School District). We live in the TPS Dist. and my wife and I are very active within the school dist. including sitting on many committees, so I have a very good insight into our school district. East Toledo Jr. H.S. has a reputation as being the worst jr. H.S. in the district for student behavior and I can tell you that its students are some of the worst behaving students in the school district. And there is a very good reason for that. The school principal refuses to demand appropriate behavior from her students. A case in point: On the next-to-last day of my assignment, a student made a death threat against me. This student was instantly removed from the building and was eventually suspended from school for the rest of the school year (big deal, he got a 4 mon. summer vacation instead of a 3 mon. vacation and was still promoted to the 9th grade). The principal was very upset about the situation, but not because the student made a death threat against me, but because after telling him to put a non-school book away three times, but because I took the book away after he refused to follow my instructions to put the book away. Her excuse was that she does not require her students to exhibit good behavior because they have not been taught good manners at home. I was speechless that a school administer would make such a statement to a tax paying, registered voter parent of two students in the school district, but this is the type of incompetent administrators that we have to put up with in some of our schools. She made these statements in a hearing that she called because she wrote me up because she felt that I provoked the student by taking the book from him.

There is no excuses for bad behavior. I will not tolerate foul language the players in the men's and women's college games I officiate. Why? The fact that a person is attending college means that he/she is a situation that requires civilized behavior and the fact that they are athletes does not give them a reason to conduct themselves at a lower level than the non-athlete members of the student body. I only have to say "sugar" once after hearing somebody say "sh#t" and the players get the idea that I expect a high level of behavior from them. I have never had a player complain to me about my behavior requirments. Many times the player apologizes and agrees with me that foul language has no place in a college basketball game.

If a person conducts him/herself in a civilized manner and accepts nothing less than civilized behavior from other people, then other people will get the idea and act accordingly.

Well it is getting late and I have a lot to do tomorrow (actually later today), so everybody have a good weekend. See you all Tuesday morning.

MTD, Sr.