cheating and other problems in school

I would expect my athletes to be exceptional, not ordinary, therefore I would hold them to a higher standard than the school. Since winning is in part based on character, leadership, principles (such as excellence in all you do, role modeling), etc. I would say that those things are a football issue. Just my way of looking at it. Everyone does not approach it the way I do. Doesn't mean I am right...but I would not do it at all if I didn't do it this way. I have no problem punishing an athlete twice for doing the wrong thing (adding on to the school punishment). The way I structure things we are all about building leaders. A team of young men who are leaders will win. A leader will make mistakes, and he will deal with the consequences. A leader's mistakes affect many people. When a leader screws up others will suffer. We expect more of a leader than we do of an ordinary person. When I am punishing them in addition to the school I am doing it because they have let down those who were depending on them by failing to be a leader. For my style this can not be separated from football. From an administrative standpoint, imagine the impact on the school environment, student culture, academic success when you unleash 150 student leaders into the school.

I agree completely.

I am not sure how you guys do it but at our school we have a honor code. it is the athletic code and it covers cheating, fighting both on and off campus(if arrests are made off campus adn charges rendered), stealing, drinking, drugs, sexual assults, other criminal offenses(like vandlism).

Let the school pass judgement, then you mete out what you feel is needed. If it's something really bad, he has to go.

I've coached in some pretty ghetto places, so some times I feel like I'm not on the same level as everyone else here. Just some background the school I teach at now had 8 seperate incidents last year when security had to mace a crowd of students during lunch time altercations. I write that to provide background for who I'm dealing with; although to be honest I think as a whole the young men Ive dealt with aren't much different than most.
I also feel I should add that I am an assistant coach; I think that gives me the cache to deal with things while they are still in the "suspected" phase (ie I can go and shoot straight with a kid about drugs, or cheating, or whatever without anything being proven).
From my stand point, I think its good to always have a few assistants who are close with security, vp, staff etc. (that was me) who can get the dirt (or suspected dirt) on all the boys before it becomes a problem. I can't count the times that Ive drug one of the players into my class during passing period for an informal; yet stern warning about screwing around in Miss So-and-So's class.

As to the specific question of cheating, we don't have an honor code, or anything of that nature, but we do have specific rules as to players who are on academic probation. Had a player who was on AP been caught cheating the teacher could have very easily prevented that player from participating in the upcoming weeks game. If he were not on AP, it would just be something the school would handle (probably have to take an 'F' on the exam and whatever punishment got doled outby the school we could add on some conditioning on our end).

I think if you remain proactive though you could prevent a lot of bad from taking place.

I'm the Dean of Students (and the HFC) at a private school. Our principal is very supportive of the role that athletics plays in the big picture of school. Having said that, we've asked 3 big time student athletes to leave our school so far this year, the latest being yesterday - the same day we were going to play our biggest rival in basketball! This kid already had 2 instances of cutting class earlier this year where I gave him "less" than the handbook stated discipline. He learned his lesson so well that he cut class 4 days this week and then lied to us, his coach, and his mom before finally telling the (partial) truth. We had to go another round to get the whole truth! The other 2 kids were football players who had several minor violations and as they began to add up, I gave them some "on the field" discipline in conjunction with the handbook.

As football was winding down and basketball was getting started, these 2 and another kid were starting quite a little business of stealing cell phones, sidekicks, and ipods from the locker room! When our security officer finally cracked the case, they all admitted their guilt, and we politely asked them to leave our school. I try to use the field punishment to get their attention and then also spend some time talking with them about hopefully making better decisions in the future. Not trying to say our way is the only way - thats just how we do things.

I agree that you must allow the administration to do its job (and fully support the decision it makes, whether you completely agree or not). However, I also agree with the notion that you must deal with it as a coaching staff. I believe an oft looked past principle in teaching kids is that we communicate what we believe often times by what we don't say as much as with what we do say. IE, if the athlete knows that we know what he did, and we simply defer to what the school administration decides, we are basically telling him that we as a coaching staff don't think his behavior was inappropriate. That's poison. As has been mentioned, sometimes the penalty we lay down will go beyond that of the school; a young man must be reminded that his actions affect many people other than himself, and a football team is one of the best places to learn that principle. We need to hold them to account.