![\"\"](\"http:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/lehigh-senior.jpg\" "\\"lehigh")
The five-day school suspension and a playoff ban for\u00a09 Lehigh Senior High School basketball players benched for a\u00a0controversial video has been upheld, Lee County School District officials said.<\/p>\nThe five-day school suspension and a playoff ban for\u00a09 Lehigh Senior High School basketball players benched for a\u00a0controversial video has been upheld, Lee County School District officials said.<\/p>\n
Despite the\u00a0suspensions, Lehigh Senior beat Estero High School 61-53 Wednesday night to advance to the district final.<\/p>\n
The teenagers were initially given a two-day suspension after a\u00a0video of them rapping explicit lyrics in the school practice room after hours surfaced online. The punishment was then upgraded to five\u00a0days and included being banned from team activities.<\/p>\n
There was a \u201cprocedural error\u201d in stating the two-day suspension, said\u00a0district spokeswoman Amity\u00a0Chandler, who added that the school principal renders a final decision once the investigation is completed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis decision often includes a more thorough disciplinary decision that can include additional days suspension or other sanctions,\u201d she said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Parents of the suspended players\u00a0voiced their concerns to district\u00a0officials Wednesday morning, hoping to have the decision overturned.<\/p>\n
The issue is not that the students were punished, parents said, but that their punishment was severe in relation to their offense.<\/p>\n
All the coaching staff according Head basketball coach Dawn McNew was temporarily suspended from team duties due to the video. McNew \u201chas an impeccable professional career and reputation and is well respected among her peers,\u201d but the suspension was a necessary step given the number of athletes involved and the scope of the student discipline, Chandler said.<\/p>\n
The district will also investigate McNew\u2019s supervision practices, Chandler added.<\/p>\n
McNew was named the Class 6A Coach of the Year in 2015 by the Florida Association of Basketball Coaches after she led the Lighting to a 27-2 record.<\/p>\n
The following is from Amity Chandler Lee County Schools Communications Director by email at 8:30 pm after the Wednesday nights game.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere has been some discussion about a Lehigh player that received what appears to be a 2 day and then 5 day suspension. While we cannot comment on the details of student discipline I believe I can clarify this.<\/p>\n
For infractions that rise to the level of suspension in the student code of conduct, administrators initially suspend a student pending a full investigation. \u00a0Once the investigation is completed, a school principal then delivers a final decision. This decision often includes a more thorough disciplinary decision that can include additional days suspension or other sanctions.<\/p>\n
While there is a procedural error in an assistant Principal stating the suspension is “two” days , he did indicate there would be a meeting\u00a0on Monday. This meeting refers to the student hearing in which the principal delivers a final decision as a result of a concluded investigation. In this case, as the parents already\u00a0indicated to you, the principal chose to make the overall suspension five days.<\/p>\n
The athletes remain ineligible for the rest of the season.<\/p>\n
At this time the original disciplinary decision communicated to you by the parents earlier Today remains in place – the students remain ineligible for play for the remainder of the school year with a 5 day suspension.<\/p>\n
The basketball coaches are also temporarily suspended from coaching duties while professional standards looks into issues of supervision. \u00a0It is unlikely this will be completed by the time the season is over.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The five-day school suspension and a playoff ban for\u00a09 Lehigh Senior High School basketball players benched for a\u00a0controversial video has been upheld, Lee County School District officials said. Despite the\u00a0suspensions,… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38693"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38693\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}