The Edjurist - Information on School and Educational Law

Well, I guess now is as good a time as any to make my dislike for school-employed coaches public. If you have had me in class, you are already aware of my feelings in this regard.

My university just fired our basketball coach, Billy Gillespie, perhaps you've heard. So, I went to a few games this year and I watch them on TV when I can and I understand that our basketball team is probably all the general public knows about the University of Kentucky. But, we spend a lot of money on it. They make a lot of money, but we also just throw money around somewhat recklessly. For instance, we are going to pay our coach six million just to fire him (although the university is going to spend a lot of legal dollars trying to pay less). The point is that sports are overshadowing academics at the University of Kentucky - and since I am on the academic side, I am not particularly fond of that.

But, it is not just the attention and money that shifts away from academics, sports are probably the most legally risky thing that schools do. Kids die ... quite frequently, actually. And when that happens, lawsuits ensue. Here is another one just from today, just in my local paper. Of course here in Kentucky earlier this year we had the case of Max Gilpin, which gained national attention when a student died playing football - and he wasn't the first to die in that district. The Gilpin case was the first, though, where the coach was charged with reckless homicide. I could cite lots of other examples too and that is not even accounting for all the sports injuries, which happen pretty much constantly.

Now, the counter argument is that the benefits of physical activity far outweigh the potential risk of injury or death. The problem is that coaches don't coach to make kids healthy ... they coach to win - frequently at all costs. When kids play they will get hurt, but the risk of getting injured or killed when they are exhausted or pushed to their limits increase substantially. Why is it that schools have to take on that risk? Why not cities? Why not private companies, like in professional sports?

From a legal perspective, employing coaches is just not a great idea. I understand that tradition dictates we do it and there are community benefits by rooting for the home team, but school administrators need to be very, very careful with their coaches and not get too enthralled with winning. Let's not take our eye off the ball, to use a sports analogy, by putting winning before our student's health.