By:Scott Brinton
"No!" the father said. "You're out of order!" And he walked out of the school board meeting.
It was a dramatic moment in a three-hour Board of Education session last Wednesday during which the district's new anti-hazing/anti-bullying, character-education and field-trip policies were unveiled.
The father was responding to the board's apparent unwillingness to entertain the possibility of canceling Mepham's football season this year, as it had in 2003.
Saul Lerner, the Central atheltic director, said in a phone interview that the district is moving ahead with plans for an '04 season, with four of five new coaches already hired. The head coach is a Suffolk County police officer, he said.
Jim Rullo, a member of Bellmore-Merrick Parents for Change, had asked whether the board would consider nixing football. Clearly, Rullo said, there were boys at last August's camp in Pennsylvania who knew that three varsity players -- Phil Sofia, Ken Carney and Thomas Diasparra -- were sexually abusing three junior-varsity teammates, but said and did nothing.
And Rullo noted that to this day those players have remained silent. He and other members of Bellmore-Merrick Parents believe they shouldn't be allowed to play football. If they do, Rullo said, "What message are we sending?"
Reinhardt said that without "evidence of misconduct," the students "can't be told they cannot participate in the activity of a school."
Reinhardt acknowledged that certain football players have said nothing about what they know, and that has "vexed the Board of Education from day one." He added, "I feel very badly for the families" of the victims. "This is the most bitter, heart-breaking thing."
If there were evidence to implicate other students in the attacks, Reinhardt said, "We would immediately have a hearing." But, he said, "We can't have a witch hunt. I am very, very sorry for what happened here."
School board members noted that certain football players offered information about the attacks to authorities. Rullo, however, said, "Not a lot of other information has come forward." That, he said, "begs the question whether Mepham should have" football.
Speaking for the first time publicly about the Mepham case, board Trustee Dan DeLilla said that canceling the season would be "a tough call to make." But he said, "I do have a problem with the lack of forthcoming we've had." He added that offering football again "feels like some kind of reward for not coming forward." The players who knew and said nothing "outlasted us, and they win," he said.
DeLilla's remarks prompted members of Bellmore-Merrick Parents, who were seated at the back of the auditorium, to shout, "Thank you, Dan," and, "You're a good man, Dan."
Michelle Scheff, a member of the parents group, said canceling the season is an idea that the board "should entertain," noting, "You'll take a little flak, but it can't be any worse than this year."
Mary Oporto, a newly elected member of the North Bellmore Board of Education, said, "I can appreciate the fact that many children did not come forward. There were also children who did come forward ... six, seven times." It would be unfair to them to cancel the season, she believes.
Janet Goller, the Board of Education vice president, later echoed Oporto's comments, saying, "There were children who did come forward and did the right thing. You can't forget those children."
Diana Berkowitz, an audience member, said the question isn't whether the season should be canceled, but rather whether those students who knew and have remained silent should be allowed to play.
Dr. Thomas Caramore, the Bellmore-Merrick superintendent, noted that he remains frustrated by many of the players' reticence. He said that several parents told their children to say nothing to authorities. "The parents are educating their kids not to cooperate," Caramore said.
Mark Davis, another audience member, said school "is not a penal institution." Students, he said, "can make mistakes and recover." He added that canceling the football season would be seen as a sign of "instability in the district."
And Davis noted that doing away with the season would unfairly punish incoming eighth-graders who want to play football. They, he said, "had nothing to do with" the scandal.
Toward the meeting's end, Rullo clarified his remarks. He said he didn't necessarily want the season canceled, but rather to have those students who didn't cooperate with officials excluded from football. Allowing them to play would devastate the victims' families, Rullo said. The families, he said, "are seeking some sort of closure that they may not find."
