I once got death threats for taking a stand like this … but … «the Duncan Banner reports that DPS has reached a contract agreement with Air Evac» (the reporter doesn’t mention the cost) to cover student athletes if they get injured in any situation.

Why just the athletes?? Where’s the coverage for ALL Duncan students? Why does Oklahoma put such a premium on the athletics over academics and athletes over scholars?

I mean really … if a kid at DHS has a heart attack and collapses, are they really going to say, “Oh, you’re not on the football team? Well, a regular ambulance is on its way and your parents will be billed. Hope the ambulance gets you up to Duncan Regional in time and that your parents have insurance.”

It is understandable that coverage is needed for games. But the Banner article notes that even if the athletes are not in a game, just, say, sitting on a school bus that has a wreck, the mediflight coverage will be there for them. And what about regular students on the buses? They’ll airlift you to Oklahoma City if you’re on the wrestling team, but leave you for ground transport to Duncan Regional if you’re a plain old regular student?

It would probably help if the article were better written. What is the cost? Does it really exclude regular students? Is it really just for the athlete class? So many questions.

But again my conscience, still intact on this issue, makes me draw my line in the sand again, taking an unpopular stand that got me in such hot water in the summer of ‘89, 20 years ago … such hot water that people flooded my parents with obscene and threatening phone calls, there were calls for my tarring and feathering and being run out of town on a rail and for awhile there we were genuinely afraid for my safety.

But I said it then and I repeat it now. I didn’t back down then even in the face of vile threats. I have to take the same position then and now: Academics should always take precedence over, not a back seat to, athletics. Yes, even and especially in the state of Oklahoma.

When you sign contracts for exclusive helicopter airlifts for injured athletes, you send several messages: That athletes are special and elite, and regular students are somehow not deserving of the same kind of perks and considerations. You devalue non-athletes.

I’m hoping there’s more to this than just what is presented in the article. Having been Duncan Public Schools’ Head Cheerleader (Director of PR), I do also still believe that DPS is a wonderful district and has its students’ best interests first and foremost. But I think, pun intended, they’ve dropped the ball on this one. I hope I’m wrong.