R-1 president says Hon made own decision on soccer issue

To the Editor

and Community:

Sorry for my delayed response to restate the record on the soccer player situation. I have been off taking care of my wife who had surgery on Wednesday, the 12th. Also, I have been consulting with the DAR since Monday, the 17th.

The simple facts of the matter are as follows. Deciding whether or not athletes play a sport has not and is not a school board decision. We have six tools and this is not one of them.

As I stated and was quoted in the Sunday, November 9th article by Donna Farley, the Poplar Bluff School Board had no meeting on this matter therefore there was no vote! I did, however, contact board members after many calls from the community and took a simple poll of the board members' opinion.

The first four board responses I reached gave a majority of the board with the same opinion. I called Mr. Hon and told him the majority of the board's opinion. It was up to him and his administration to make a decision and handle the situation! Mr. Hon and his Administrators changed their minds and reversed their decision!

I followed the same procedure in May this year when we had a Valedictorian situation. At that time, Mr. Hon and his administration stood by their decision. These are and have been simple facts all along!

In my opinion, this matter has gotten out of hand somewhat with all the things printed in the DAR. Then I ask myself how could this have been prevented? Two solutions come to mind. First, Donna Farley could have used another word when asking Mr. Hon a question. I think she took the word "overrule" out of context and it was misleading. Also, maybe the question she asked could have been like, "Mr. Hon, what made you and your administration change your minds and reverse your decision?" Secondly, Mr. Hon, when asked could have responded, "The Board did not overrule our decision. My administration and I reversed the suspension.

The headline Poplar Bluff, is this was not a Board decision! It was simply a poll or feel of the board majority and community and was passed on to Mr. Hon and his Administration.

May I please close with we have a lot of positive things going on with our school district and our town! Let's all work together and stick together and keep elevating our school district for our students, our staff and community.

Thank you for your time.

Steve Sells

President

PB School Board

(PUBLISHER'S NOTE: The newspaper stands by its reporting of this issue.)