CaCO3Girl posted:Steve A. posted:Taking all of this in as a whole, I think it would be helpful to view it from a coach's perspective. As a coach, you are often faced with some difficult choices with respect to playing time, starting pitcher decisions, etc. Often, it is extremely difficult to make some of these decisions. If it is borderline & you have player A who is "all in," so to speak & you have player B who is off to the beach on occasion, & these 2 players are similar in ability, then you can easily see what the result would be. The result would be exactly what we have here in this case. Nobody is really "at fault," but player B has helped make the coach's decision by freely choosing to not attend a practice.
A 16 year old doesn't get to make many decisions "freely". Sure, he can choose to wear his blue shirt or his red shirt and which movie he wants to see with his girlfriend but he does not get to decide if he goes on the family vacation or not.
Midlo Dad brought up a great point of how things use to be, well sadly, times have changed. Now, we have new legal terms like "Parental liability", which is the term used to refer to a parent's obligation to pay for damage caused by negligent, intentional, or criminal acts committed by the parent's child.
And my personal favorite...parents suing other parents because they think their child should have been watched better, or been controlled more, like this pregnant girls parents suing the boys parents because they apparently KNEW the kids were having sex and did nothing to stop it. http://articles.orlandosentine...boy-gets-girl-detmer
I recall being able to walk home from school in 3rd grade, open up my house door, lock it, and keep myself occupied until my parents got home. I was taught not to open the door for ANYONE, even if I knew them. If I did that with my daughter next year I would be reported to the state. The laws right now encourage parents to keep a tight reign on their children...OR ELSE.
OK, just insert (Player B's Parents helped make the coach's decision).....a little Parental Lliability there so to speak. No difference really. Player B faces the consequences either way.
Also, I might add that "Parental Liability" is certainly nothing new. The difference today is that lawsuits force the "liability" where as in the past it was the family.