Cauldron Of Shame Cleansing Roosevelt -- Principal: Scandal Will Lead To Change
"Who told? Who ratted on us?"
Those were the first questions some Roosevelt High School football players asked each other after they learned that police had been tipped to the stolen athletic gear stashed in their lockers and homes.
So Principal Dave Humphrey sent them a clear message: If they continued to ask those questions, ones that suggested the possibility of retaliation, they would face even more severe punishment.
The principal also suggested they go home, look in the mirror, and ask themselves what they had done to land in deep trouble with the school and the law.
With the encouragement of the football-team leaders, Humphrey said, the athletes "almost to a person" have taken an honest look at themselves.
Now he is doing the same thing with the school, which was jolted by scandal just weeks into his second year as principal. The result, he said, can be healing, not just for the athletic program but for all students in one of Seattle's most sought-after schools.
"This is a tremendous opportunity for us," Humphrey said yesterday. "We've got kids in this football program who feel they've had a weight lifted off their shoulders. They've been dealing with thievery and devious criminal activity that, even though they participated in it, they didn't like it."
Since word of the thefts became public Tuesday, 24 football players have been suspended from school, one has been told he will be expelled, and three nonplayers have been suspended. Two students, including the one being expelled, are appealing the disciplinary action.
School administrators and University of Washington police are continuing to investigate the theft of more than $13,000 worth of athletic equipment and radios from the UW.
Most of the suspended players are suspected of possessing, but not stealing, the equipment taken during at least four break-ins between Sept. 3 and Sept. 22.
Roosevelt (0-4) has forfeited next week's game against Garfield, the originally scheduled homecoming, and last night's scheduled game against Inglemoor.
A girls' soccer game, not a football game, will be the featured athletic event for Roosevelt's rescheduled homecoming. Roosevelt will play Redmond soccer on Oct. 14, a Thursday, at 7:30 p.m. in Memorial Stadium. The Roosevelt band will perform at the game, and an effort will be made to draw a large crowd.
"We have such a good soccer team that it's neat to be able to highlight them," Humphrey said. "We're going to try to get as many students at the game as we can."
Roosevelt's soccer team is undefeated and unscored upon in five 4A KingCo Conference games this season and is the defending league champion. A volleyball game the next day also will be part of the homecoming celebration and will precede the annual dance.
Officially, the football game Saturday night, Oct. 16, against Lake Washington also will be part of the celebration, too, but it figures to be anti-climactic because it is the day after the dance.
Humphrey's suspension of most of the varsity and JV football team was a swift, decisive imposition of discipline that veteran Seattle School Board member Ellen Roe called "gutsy."
After conducting numerous interviews with students, Humphrey said he has concluded that there have been thefts from the UW over the years but that this year it was "planned" and "got way out of hand."
UW police broke the case when an unidentified student informed them that another student was attending the Washington-Colorado game last Saturday wearing a stolen soccer jacket.
Humphrey and Roosevelt athletic director Joel Watters are trying to find out what happened to a large amount of UW soccer gear that has not been returned. Humphrey said he thinks athletes at other schools knew of the thefts but has no reason to believe they also stole from the UW's Edmundson Pavilion.
Parents and outsiders have continued to ask how Roosevelt coaches could fail to notice stolen equipment in the dressing room.
"They feel badly that they didn't spot it," Humphrey said. "Believe me, every coach in this building is looking closely at their equipment now."
Humphrey said football coaches may have been lulled into nonvigilance because so much privately purchased UW logo clothing is worn by Roosevelt students and athletes. Roosevelt is about 2 miles from the UW and its attendance areas, including wealthy Laurelhurst and Windermere, have strong ties to the UW.
Humphrey, who had been principal of Mount Si High School in Snoqualmie, said Roosevelt is "a great place to get an education."
One-fifth of all Seattle eighth-graders' families list Roosevelt as their top choice among the city's 10 high schools.
But with a disarming candor, Humphrey said the school must come to grips with school traditions that are "abusive, demeaning, humiliating."
One of those is the twice-annual practice of draping large trees with toilet paper. When a group of students toilet-papered the trees last month despite repeated warnings not to, two were arrested, several were suspended and one was expelled.
Humphrey also said some students haven't heeded warnings to cease hazings of new club members, who sometimes are spirited out of their homes in the night, covered with goo, thrown into Green Lake, and then told to wear goofy clothes and sing silly songs at school the next day.
Those kinds of youthful excesses aren't unique to Roosevelt, but the school principal has told parents and students the pranks have got to go. He plans to work with them to create new traditions that are exciting and fun, but not harmful.
"Roosevelt High School is a tremendous place, and I love my job," Humphrey said. "I even kind of like it when I deal with situations like this. I mean it sincerely because I feel I'm doing some good."
He knows that, to some, he may be the Grinch that stole the heart of Roosevelt.
"I say to these students, as I'm dealing with them, I want you to understand something," he said. "You're going to have the potential to really dislike me because I'm the disciplinarian here. But like a parent, I want you to know when this is finished, I want to be able to give you a hug - a figurative hug . . . I want to walk down the hall and have you smile at me and look me in the eye."
Keith Ervin's phone message number is 206-464-2105. His e-mail address is kervin@seattletimes.com
Craig Smith's phone message number is 206-464-8279. His e-mail address is csmith@seattletimes.com