PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE: This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus use an image from my favorite sport, golf. Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as a Congressional press secretary in Washington, D.C., an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and a private sector lobbyist. This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.

Under this headline – “OSAA reclassification recommendation makes no sense to valley league” – Salem Statesman-Journal editorial writers got it right the other day.

Making Salem area teams play three high schools in Bend and mandating the reverse will force students to make an often-dangerous trip over the Santiam Pass during the height of winter. It also will squeeze out valuable class time, which ought to be the main purpose of high school.

OSAA is an acronym that stands for Oregon School Activities Association, so I guess the great minds there thought it made sense to mandate the unconscionable trip.

No matter about dangerous driving conditions.

No matter about how much it would cost citizens in Salem and Bend to fund the increased expenses.

No matter about the fact that students would be gone from school for far longer than normal.

So, that’s why I say it was a stupid decision, one that is almost unfathomable to have been made by officials who should have the students’ best interests at heart.

Here’s more detail from the Statesman-Journal:

“The Oregon Schools Activities Association is messing with students’ academic careers. Again.

“The committee wants five of Salem-Keizer’s high schools to participate in athletic and other activities with three Bend schools starting next fall.

“Does no one remember the students who had to be tutored or flunked classes or failed to graduate when the OSAA implemented this same over-the-pass plan more than a decade ago by putting Salem in the same classification as Redmond?

“There are too many parents in the Salem-Keizer area who haven’t forgotten the impact the extra travel then had on their children’s studies. They’re still talking about it.”

So, imagine school buses already lumbering down roads; during snowy days or slowing to a crawl in the darkness of the return trip to avoid ice. The students would arrive back at their high schools late. It could be 11 p.m. or later if a baseball game went into extra innings, for instance. That meant students were pulling 15-hour days, and not all of them did their homework after three hours on the diamond. Imagine valley and high desert teams doing this multiple times per week.

So, it’s time for smarter heads at the OSAA to think again, even if the time for public comment has expired. If nothing else, OSAA officials should keep two principles in mind – the safety of the kids involved in athletics and the fact that athletics should not usurp academics.

As a sports fan, one who has watched his kids and grandkids grow up while combining school and sports, there is a better way to proceed that what the OSAA has chosen.

Our children deserve much better!