Huntington School District Fiasco

Although this is a sports blog, I'd like to take time out to address an important non-sports issue that's been plaguing my hometown for quite some time now, and that his finally been "solved."

Recently the Huntington School Board voted 4-3 to make all of the elementary schools in the district grades K - 4 instead of K - 3, and to move all of the students that are going into fifth grade and sixth grade at Jack Abrams School to Woodhull Intermediate School. Jack Abrams School, will most likely be used for adult education classes and tutoring, as well as an alternative high school in the future.

Originally - following a sharp rise in violence in the surrounding area of Jack Abrams School (especially a shooting that took place when kids were about to be put onto their buses on March 11) - the School Board had voted to move all fourth and fifth graders to Woodhull and only send sixth graders to Jack Abrams, but after the recent shooting of a 16 year old girl at a party near the school, it was decided that the school wasn't suitable for sixth graders either.

As many of you know, I went to Jack Abrams School back when it was known as Huntington Intermediate School. During that time, Lowndes Avenue, the street which the school was and is located on, was one of the worst streets in the neighborhood. It was gang-ridden, drug-ridden and every single adult and child in the district knew it. But nevertheless, during my three years there I never once felt threatened. The security guards - Ms. Gloria especially - were amazing and always made sure that every single student in the school felt as safe as possible. Ms. Gloria got around that school so fast, that to this day I still believe she can either teleport or that there was some secret shortcut that only she knew about.

During my sixth grade year, an event took place that changed the district forever. A shooting occurred during the school day on Tower Street, which borders the parking lot and the side of the building in which the administrative offices and sixth grade classrooms are located. I was in one of those sixth grade classrooms. The school was put on lock-down and over the PA system we were told to hide in the closets. Thankfully, the school was never put into any extra danger. Even after that day, I always felt safe going to school, a feeling that many adults also still shared.

Since then, I'm sad to say that the town surrounding the school has only gotten worse. Lock-downs have taken place repeatedly since the one I had back in sixth grade. I have numerous friends from the area, many of them who are outstanding, kind, caring people, but the number of bad apples and the magnitude of the violence in the area has only grown.

Originally, I was against moving any of the students from Jack Abrams Intermediate. I figured that I had been fine going there, so why couldn't these kids; it was one of those moments that grandparents have with their grandchildren, where they talk about how easy kids have it these days. I figured it was just a bunch of parents who didn't know the whole story, and were picturing the situation as worse than it actually was (I still feel a lot of parents dramatize the situation in the area more than they should). I mean it couldn't have gotten much worse than when I was there. Then I read about all the recent violence. The six shootings shootings that have taken place in the school's vicinity since March, and the increase in the magnitude of the gang violence there. I understood why more and more parents were deciding not to send their kids to school there.

Do I personally believe that the school is too dangerous for fourth, fifth and sixth grade students to attend? No. I believe that with a little additional security that the school would be safe enough to stay open. But I also feel that you'd have to be naive and overly optimistic to feel that the chance of a child being harmed, injured or even killed because of a gunfight or some type of violence isn't relatively high. Even if the chance of a child being injured or murdered was .001%, the school district would have the responsibility to protect its students.

Can you imagine the horror and awful misfortune of an innocent child dying during an episode of violence when all along, the district knew how poor of an area the school was in? What about if the kids were on the playground, and a gun went off on a bordering street. Can you believe the madness that would ensue even if no one was hurt. The district would never be the same and would receive terrible publicity for its lack of caution and responsibility. Numerous parents would immediately transfer their kids to private schools, and even move out of the district. No new families would want to move into Huntington for at least another decade with such a terrible mishap. Would you want your kids in a district where another child had just been shot or even harmed in any way. It's obvious that the district and town would go into a major rut.

The agony and misery that would spread across the town would be too much for anyone to handle, but on top of the emotional pain a death, injury or even harmful situation like that would cause, imagine what else would come out of it. It'd be one helluva lawsuit against the school district, and one lawsuit the district wouldn't be able to win. Where do you think the money for the loss in that lawsuit will come from? Have fun with that taxpayers.

The one problem that many say with moving all of the kids to one school is the concern about a possible increase in class sizes throughout the school district. With all of the moves taking place, the average class size for grades 1-6 would probably be around 30 kids, an extremely high number, especially with such young children. If classes bloated to that size, many parents would take their children out of the district and put them in private schools with smaller class sizes. Although the district would still be losing students, that number would be smaller than had the board voted to keep sixth graders at Jack Abrams. Bigger class sizes are also a small price to pay for the safety of students in the district.

People suggest the most positive solution to the problem: improve the neighborhood. People have been calling on town leaders to improve Huntington Station for years now, but now more than ever, people are pleading with the town to do something about the increasing violence.

It's a great solution for everyone; the school stays open, and the town gets the help it needs to root out violence. What's better than that? But although it certainly would be the best way out, it's also the most idealistic and therefore most unlikely solution. Although I think of myself as an optimist, I'm also a realist, and one of the main things the town would need to improve Huntington Station is time, and lots of it. Well guess what? That's exactly what the town doesn't have. The school year starts in just over a month, and based on the lack of improvement or help that Huntington Station has received over the past five years, it's tough to believe that the town and/or county would be able to snap their fingers and fix everything. Town and county leaders have done an awful job in Huntington Station in the past, and it's naive for anyone to think that they'd start taking the hands on approach that the town needs immediately.

There's nothing I'd like more than to see Huntington Station's streets become safe, to see gang violence disappear, to see gang members put in jail, and to see my old school that I love so dearly to be saved; but all of that change is far away. For now however, the parents of Huntington have to be reassured that their children can learn in a safe environment. With numerous threats from parents to pull their children out of the school system either temporarily or permanently, the school board needed to take action, if not to save themselves, then to save the school district and the town of Huntington itself. The school board waited as long as they could to make this change, and hopefully when Town Hall decides to take more action and clean up the streets of Huntington Station, then and only then, will Jack Abrams School once again be rightfully known as Jack Abrams Intermediate School.

Revis Island Tough To Get To

Everyone just take a deep breath in. Now out. Now in. Now out. Are you relaxed? Good.

I'm here to try and reassure all of you that the Jets will work something out with Darrelle Revis sooner rather than later. You want to know why? Because the Jets need Darrelle Revis and I don't believe that Revis is crazy enough to miss a season of football.

Jets owner Woody Johnson has been less than optimistic about signing the Jets' top player Darrelle Revis. When Johnson was asked whether he thought Revis would be signed before the season started, his response was simple; "the answer is no."

But here's the thing; without Darrelle Revis, the Jets have absolutely no shot at a Super Bowl, and have to be underdogs to even win the division. You can try to tell me how good Antonio Cromartie and Kyle Wilson are but I'm not buying it. Cromartie is still riding on his rookie Pro Bowl year which he had a mind-blowing 10 picks. He's been mediocre since, only able to pull down five picks the last two seasons combined. Then there's Kyle Wilson. Wilson looks like a great rookie, but remember the key part of that phrase is rookie. It's extremely difficult to learn the tendencies of receivers your first year in the league no matter how good you are. If Revis is out, Wilson would most likely be splitting time with Dwight Lowery, who has had a mediocre career so far. The word is however, that Lowery may move to safety in order to make room for Wilson. Sure, that's an alright cornerback situation when you're going against most teams, but when the Jets play teams like the Colts or the Patriots, it won't do. The Jets will need Revis to step up and shut down the top dog, or else there would just be too many different receivers to worry about. To put it simply, the Jets need Darrelle Revis in the secondary.

No one knows that more than Woody Johnson. That's exactly why he's telling the public that Revis won't be playing. He knows that fans are more likely to side with the team's best player than the owner, so he's trying to get the fans on his side, citing Revis' selfishness. Another thing he's trying to do, by telling the media that there's no chance he'll sign Revis or bow down to Revis' commands, is getting the upper hand in negotiations and not showing any weakness early on. No owner or GM is going to accept an athlete's first proposal, and with a number like $16 million floating around for probably around 10 years, there will be some strict negotiations. Johnson is just negotiating publicly and trying to get Revis to move down just a little.

Personally, I think that a deal is going to get done. But it'll be the Jets that will have to cave a little bit before Revis does. Darrelle Revis is the best cornerback in the NFL and arguably the best defensive player in the NFL. This is no bum asking for a raise, this is the best player on the team asking to be paid, quite frankly, the money he deserves. The Jets need Darrelle Revis more than Darrelle Revis needs the Jets. With so much hype surrounding the team this year, and all the Super Bowl talk, if the Jets don't sign Revis soon, then further into the season, both the team and the fans will regret it, when the Jets don't have the secondary to take on the giants of the AFC.

Is it at least a little bit selfish that he is sitting out of camp? Yes. Is a 10 year deal for $160 million a little too much to ask, as opposed to a shorter, smaller deal? Arguably. But I have no problem with Revis telling Jets ownership that with all that he does for the team, he deserves a pay raise, and quite frankly, deserves to be the top-paid corner in the league. Although the $16.5 million annual salary that he's asking for is a bit steep, so is the price the Jets pay by losing him. Revis shut down T.O. twice last year (T.O. had 13 and 31 receiving yards in two games against Revis), he shut down Randy Moss twice last year (Moss had 24 yards and 34 receiving yards in two games against Revis), he shut down Chad Ochocinco (Ochocinco went without a reception in one game against Revis), he shut down Andre Johnson (Johnson had 35 receiving yards in one game against Revis), he shut down Steve Smith (Smith had 5 receiving yards in one game against Revis) and he shut down so many more. Do you get the picture? No one gets past this guy. Revis knows that better than anyone else, and he knows that the Jets take a big hit without him, so the Jets shouldn't be expecting him to reach out to them anytime soon.

In football, one of the tougher sports around, contracts are not guaranteed and therefore if you get injured there's no way for you to make money. More and more players are getting contracts with some of their money guaranteed up front, but still, the whole contract is never guaranteed. Revis is trying to protect himself in case he gets injured, in asking for guaranteed money, something which the Jets have reportedly offered him none of so far. It's tough to tell if Revis will be willing to take his number down a bit if a substantial amount of his contract is guaranteed, or if he would be willing to go for a shorter deal because he has shut all media out, but it's tough to see him missing the season, when he could be getting paid $12 million a year.

Last time I checked, the Jets were a 9-7 team that lost to the likes of the Dolphins (twice), the Bills and the Jaguars last year. Sure they had a great playoff run, but until I see them play in the regular season I'm cautiously optimistic. I've said before that this team has the potential to win it all, but the team's management shouldn't start thinking that they're hot stuff too soon. You gotta walk the walk before you can talk the talk. I certainly hope and believe that Woody Johnson and Mike Tannenbaum are just trying to get Revis to back down a tad, but if they're actually serious about letting Revis sit out the season then they're in for a world of hurt. Once the team starts struggling, the New York media and fans will be on them like white on rice, and Revis will immediately have a huge upper hand in contract negotiations. So, Woody Johnson and Mike Tannenbaum are not only doing a favor for Darrelle Revis, the team and the fans by giving Revis the money he wants, they're also doing a favor to themselves.

The Two Stooges

I have lots and lots of beef today and it's with who else? The New York Knickerbockers?

Really Knicks? Really James Dolan? Really?!?! Why in God's name would you ever let Isiah Thomas work in any capacity with the Knicks? Don't you remember that he is responsible for the tragic mess that was the Knicks for most of the decade? Remember those deals for Stephon Marbury, Eddy Curry and Steve Francis, and all of the great draft picks that were lost in the process? Remember when he spent $30 million each on Jared Jeffries and Jerome James? How about when Thomas and Madison Square Garden were sued by Anucha Brown Sanders for sexual harassment in October 2006, and had to pay Sanders $11.6 million, money which could have been used to sign another mediocre basketball player. Not ringing a bell, huh? He is the main, if not the sole reason for the Knicks' woes, barring James Dolan's idiocy.

So why ever bring a guy like that back to your organization? It's like if this country had brought back George W. Bush for a second term (oh wait that really happened ... did I say that out loud?). It's like if Benedict Arnold coming back to fight for the United States. It's like if the Apostles accepted Judas back into their group. Thomas may have not been a traitor like the least two (or three depending on your political views) but the way he managed the team certainly made it seem as if he had a vendetta against the Knicks. I mean, this is Isiah Thomas we're talking about, Knicks Enemy #1.

I'm convinced that this is the work of the Devil, who also goes by the name of James Dolan. Dolan has tormented Knicks fans since he was given an increased role in running the team in 1999. Guess when the last time the Knicks had a winning season or won a playoff game? The 2000-01 season. Not much of a coincidence, considering that according to numerous polls, Dolan has been voted the worst owner in the NBA. Two years before Isiah came, Dolan signed 30 year old Knick legend Allan Houston to a max contract which paid Houston $20 million a year over six years. Although Houston deserved a contract, no other team would have even thought of paying him three-quarters of that. The aging Knicks star broke down over the next few years, missing 32 games during the 2003-04 season, 62 games during the 2004-05 season, and then retiring on October 17, 2005 - all due to a knee injury - with $40 million left on his deal.

Then there was the hiring of Isiah Thomas in 2003, followed by the signing of Larry Brown as head coach after the 2004-05 season to a 5 year, $50 million deal. Brown was fired after one year, the rest of his contract being bought out for $18.5 million, on top of the $10 million he made the first year. $28.5 million for one season in which your team finished 23-59 record, not too shabby.

But let's get back to Thomas' blunders which are a bit more interesting. His executive career started in 1994 with the Toronto Raptors as part owner and Executive Vice President. Thomas was relatively successful there, proving his sharp eye for talent by drafting players like Marcus Camby and Tracy McGrady. In 1998, Thomas left for a short stint as a broadcaster on NBC. Then the fun sets in. That same year, Thomas bought the 54 year old Continental Basketball Association for $10 million. It only took him two years to send the league into bankruptcy, forcing the league to fold and declare bankruptcy in February 2001. The collapse was accelerated by the creation of the NBA Development League in 2000, and the use of that league as the official developmental league for the NBA as opposed to the previously used CBA. Still, many owners blame the league's folding on Thomas.

Following his stint with the CBA, Thomas found a job coaching the Pacers, but was unsuccessful in bringing up the young talent that the team had, as the Pacers were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs all of the three years that Thomas was coach. Thomas was fired following the 2002-03 campaign. And then begins the saga with the Knicks.

I'm not saying that Thomas doesn't have an eye for talent. He's drafted guys like David Lee and Nate Robertson while with the Knicks, both of whom played integral parts on the team and Tracy McGrady and Marcus Camby with the Raptors, both of whom developed into phenomenal players. He's also drafted Trevor Ariza, Channing Frye and Wilson Chandler all of whom have developed into solid players in the league. But, he was one of the main components in the downfall of the Knicks. I don't blame him for accepting the job as much as I blame Dolan for offering it to him. Dolan has time and time again proven his incompetence and here he's doing it again.

The NBA has the opportunity to stop the deal from occurring however, as since Isiah Thomas is a college basketball coach (at Florida International University), many of the teams in the NBA view it as an unfair advantage for the Knicks in the recruitment of young players. As a college coach, Thomas would be talking to both high school and college players, possibly persuading players to be less than enthusiastic about playing for anyone other than the Knicks. And we all know how persuasive Thomas can be, he got James Dolan to keep him around for five years, and now he's getting Dolan to once again make him a part of the Knicks organization.

How Much Can Athletes Get Away With?

Alex Rodriguez became just the seventh man to hit 600 home runs the other day, but possibly more importantly, A-Rod is now the third man on that list to have used steroids.

Coincidentally, my family and I have been talking about legacy lately, and the fact that especially with athletes, the first thing that comes to people's heads when they think about someone is almost all that matters. For example, when you think of Michael Jordan, you think of the fact that he's the best ever, when you think of Babe Ruth, you think home runs, when you think of Joe Montana, you think championships. Those few words define an athlete's career. The problem is however, negative aspects of a person are usually accentuated in our minds, at least when we are talking about people in the present day. It's human nature to think about the negatives rather than the positives in people, because humans always want to be better than others, and one of the easiest ways to do that is to focus on the negative attributes of others. Why do you think celebrity gossip magazines are so popular? People want a way to prove to themselves that celebrities are no better than the average person, or that they themselves are just as good as celebrities. That's why we hear about the times when celebrities have legal troubles or party too much, as opposed to when they give millions to a charity.

Some of the best examples in sports of negatives overriding the positives are Tiger Woods and LeBron James. Tiger Woods was and is on track to be the greatest golfer of all time. For so long, that was his identity and now, after recent developments concerning his Las Vegas extra-curricular activities, the first thing people think of when they think of Tiger is adultery. Then there's LeBron James. He's had such a tremendous career - as much success as he could have had in Cleveland - and has always been a man of tremendous character who stayed out of trouble, but the free agency madness ruined his reputation. The infamous "Decision" changed the view people had of him from a loyal, even-keeled, great player to an egotistical, self-absorbed prick. The main question is however, whether those negative views will survive and override the positive views when all is said and done.

Although humans like to think about people in a negative aspect for the most part, in the end, the positives usually end up shining though. Although we like to take down celebrities and athletes when they're actually working, when it's all said and done we actually like to glorify them. That is, unless they've cheated us, the fans. For example, the example I always like to use is the accusation of sexual assault against Kobe Bryant back in 2003, which is very similar to Tiger Woods' situation. Although the assault cause was dropped, a civil lawsuit had to be settled. Kobe Bryant may not have been guilty of a crime, but he did have to admit to adultery. Nevertheless, Bryant fought back to build up a solid reputation, and was successful, as today the assault case is merely an afterthought, if even a thought at all, when people talk about Kobe Bryant.

Can we expect the same treatment of Tiger Woods when all is said and done? Although Tiger's adulterous acts were to a much greater extent, like Kobe, Tiger's actions never affected the public. He always won fairly, and has given us great golf to watch so far. Maybe that's why in a recent poll done by Harris Interactive, Tiger still topped the list of America's favorite athletes. But, he had such a huge fall, from the world's premier athlete to this lowlife, that it's tough to tell whether he'll be remembered as a golfer or an adulterer. If he comes out of this catastrophe and ends up taking over Jack Nicklaus as the major wins leader in golf, it will be interesting to see what people's perceptions of him are decades down the road.

But the same can't be said for those whose actions cheat the fans, with the most popular example of those actions being steroid use. Steroid use in baseball has tarnished the reputations of almost every baseball player that played during that era in some way. Whether a player's name has ever been connected with steroids or not, people assume that most players were using steroids, and therefore the question of whether a player did use or not is constantly looming.

It seems rare that any player can or ever will escape the seemingly humongous shadow that steroid use casts. Barry Bonds is rarely seen as the true "Home Run King," by fans because of his steroid use. When we think of Bonds, we think of a juicing, selfish jerk rather than a great home run hitter. The main reason for this is because Bonds cheated the fans, and his decision to use steroids affected the fans tremendously. As the records set in that game were proved phony, and the players that had been glorified as heroes were exposed to the public as the villains that they were, the sport of baseball fell apart. Steroid users essentially took baseball away from the game's fans for about a decade with their actions.

Step back to the original story: A-Rod's 600th homer. A-Rod became the youngest player to reach the milestone with his hit, and he certainly appears to be on pace to be the Home Run King by the time he hangs up his cleats. The question is, as it is with Barry Bonds, if he'll ever be able to shake off the fact that he used steroids, and be viewed as a great home run hitter as opposed to a doper and a cheater. After A-Rod hit 600, the papers and media outlets jumped on him for his steroid use, so it'll be tough to imagine them not going hard on him if he ever reached 762.

The only reason that the view of A-Rod would be more positive than the view of Bonds - if A-Rod were to actually eclipse Bonds' record - is because Rodriguez confessed. Both are known as self-absorbed, although Bonds is more-so, and the only main difference between the two would be a confession, and possibly A-Rod's shorter time using PEDs. Although his confession came two years after he had told Katie Couric that he had never used PEDs, and was sloppy to say the least, A-Rod at least eventually admitted to doping, unlike Bonds, who doesn't seem like he's ready to admit his supposed wrongdoings any time soon.

Fans are willing to forgive and even sometimes forget, if athletes are willing to admit to their wrongdoings. Steroid use however, has been a touchy subject, and one that many fans may never forget. As much as fans like to look at athletes as demi-gods, sometimes even despite their wrongdoings, I just don't see A-Rod - whose problem wasn't just an individual one, but part of a larger problem that plagued and ruined America's pastime for so long - ever being seen as the Home Run King above Steroid User.