Darrick Snyder is the wrestling coach at Mishawaka High School in Mishawaka, Indiana.

Coach Snyder is now under fire because some of his wrestlers decided to become assholes and rapists and violate a fellow teammate with a broomstick.

Snyder is in trouble because he allegedly failed to report the incident, but it is far from certain whether he ever knew about it at all.

A 15 year old boy who attends Mishawaka claims he was forcibly sodomized by five of his classmates. The allegation’s are that a broomstick was used be several teammates to sodomize the kid forcibly with a broomstick.

The best part of the story is that law enforcement has actually arrested one of the rapists, and may arrest more. This was clearly sexual assault and it is a good sign of the times that assaults like this are going to start being treated like the crimes that they are.

Any parent that believes this was just horseplay should agree to have themselves “playfully” impaled by similiar instruments……

Taylor Fleming was just one of those awesome students. Electric personality and a beautiful soul.

She died Thursday following a car accident that was not her fault last Sunday night.

This was one kid that truly wanted to make the world a better place. The entire community has come out to mourn and acknowledge her special contribution as an honest spirit.

Principal Bednarski described Fleming as, “just outstanding, she had an infectious smile that lights up a room.”

Godspeed Taylor Fleming, you belong in our memory forever.

As the country continues to reel in the economic downturn, many school districts are facing deep budget cuts for the 2011-2012 fiscal year.

Athletic department expenses are lining up in the crosshairs of school boards everywhere, causing a great divide in many communities over how money should be allocated.

Many different arguments are being made at school board meetings everywhere, but one thing is certain. With each passing year there will continue to be a greater divide between the haves and have not’s.

Some school districts want to cut athletics across the board, while others are finally giving in to the ever more popular “pay for play” method where students that wish to participate in a particular sport must pay for that privilege.

The argument of those that oppose “pay for play” is that athletics teaches students valuable life lessons, helps develop strong work habits, teaches kids about responsibility. All very true. High school athletes are largely held to a higher morality standard as well as a higher academic standard.

The flaw in that argument is that if you determine athletics to be an essential high school learning experience, then how do you also allow players to be cut from some teams? The parents of the players that were cut paid the same amount of taxes that the players that made the team did.

Would it not be a valid argument that cut players were deprived of their right to the same learning experience?

Opponents of pay for play are going the way of the dinosaur. With participation in “select” teams, or “club” teams continuing to grow across the country, money ball is a fact of life now and it only going to get bigger.

One of the biggest drawbacks of pay for play is that participation goes down as a result. Some high schools are already charging in excess of 1,000 dollars per season to play football.

Obviously, participation will decline the most in economically depressed communities while affluent communities would never feel the difference. Since most schools competitive alignments are based on total enrollment and not economic circumstances. In Texas you could have 5A Highland Park near Dallas with a median income in excess of $150,000 competing against Socorro near El Paso with a median income of $30,000.

Yet another drawback to “pay for play” is the expectations by parents that their child will receive a fair amount of playing time. That rarely ever is the case and it does become an issue that coaches get confronted about.

Of course many districts are simply going to make deep cuts to athletics altogether that will weaken their programs and make it easier for the club teams to move in and take the athletes in to private competition.

And the rich get richer……

submitted by jarrod m. / dallas texas