FHS football players off team

The Flathead Braves football team is moving forward without four of its former members.

"We have removed four players from the football team, due to a code of conduct violation," Flathead High School activities director Frank Jobe said on Wednesday.

The move follows an incident that allegedly occurred at around noon on Tuesday.

Jobe declined to describe what happened, but did say football season for those four players - as well as any other extracurricular activities the four may be involved in - is over.

"It's very unfortunate. From the administrators' viewpoint, the coaches', the parents' ... it's hard for everybody. It's hard to tell a kid that they are done.

"Our district policy is if there is a code of

conduct violation, then they are done," Jobe said.

Some schools have a progressive policy in place - the penalty escalates with the number of violations.

But Flathead's policy is not like that.

"Our code is pretty laid out - any violation means removal from the team," Jobe said.

"We talk about it at every parent meeting before every season," he said.

The Flathead policy has been in place for quite awhile, he added.

Both the student and his or her parents are required to sign Flathead's consent/release form before the student is allowed to participate.

"Once the football season is over, with them it's a clean slate," Jobe said. "They can move forward. They start the next season and they are okay."

In 11 years and counting as an activities director, Glacier's Mark Dennehy has seen the cycle of dismissals carry on year after year.

"We deal with student-athlete disciplines every school year and generally, whatever high school it may be, we deal with 10-15 dismissals a year on average, across the athletic programs," Dennehy said.

Dennehy said Glacier has not had any football players dismissed this season, but that the possibility remains day to day, unfortunately.

"This could happen to us, Glacier High School, tomorrow," he said. "Whether it's Glacier or Flathead or any other school in the state of Montana, you just deal with these things and you try to be fair and figure it all out. I guess it's part of this educational process but it's unfortunate whenever you have to deal with it."

The Glacier High Parent/Student Athlete Handbook follows a strict guideline similar to Flathead's, meaning immediate dismissal from the season's activity for offending students. The handbook begins with a list of 14 beliefs, including one that reads "We believe that participation is a privilege, not a right."

"Anytime you deal with it, it's unfortunate," Dennehy said of student-athlete dismissals. "Kids make mistakes and as a program we try to work with our kids and try not to throw them out with the bath water. They're going to make errors but it doesn't make them bad people."