Editorial: Immokalee overage students

Principal Manny Touron says he has given a lot of thought to the situation that allowed student-athletes — 30, 23 and 20 — to go to Immokalee High School for as long as nearly four years.

Though he said last month he probably made a poor choice by not taking action sooner — last fall rather than this spring — in an interview this week he shows he still does not get the point, which is about integrity, sportsmanship and the safety of the conventional student body.

For example, Touron now says he takes it "very seriously" that news coverage of over-aged student athletes playing soccer for teams he helped coach has embarrassed "my kids, my school and my community."

Still, while he and others in the community talk of him as a role model and mentor, Touron is unable to say he made any mistakes. He says doing so would approach admitting guilt.

Actually there is a big difference. Guilt infers malice — knowing something was wrong and doing it anyway. Mistakes include not following through as aggressively as possible after receiving a tip — from an on-campus deputy — that a 23-year-old man was enrolled and menacing a teenage student. A mistake would also cover choosing not to refer these men to alternate, adult education programs with other students their age — without even leaving Immokalee. A mistake would include choosing to bypass a life's lesson between right and wrong and instead choosing to go with the flow and portray yourself as a victim.

A leader truly attuned to his school, community and student athletes might show more respect for sportsmanship and opponents by keeping grown men on the sidelines. Hard-earned sports titles may be stripped as a result. That is doing right by "my kids, my school and my community"?

We keep going back to October, when an on-campus deputy first caught on to over-age student athletes from the soccer hotbed of Haiti. According to official Collier County Sheriff's Office files, a report written up on Oct. 6 said: "For the safety of the students, I informed Mr. Manny Touron, principal of Immokalee High School, that (name deleted) had a Florida driver's license that listed him as 23 years of age. Also, I informed the school administration that there could be several students who are not using their true date of birth. Furthermore, I informed Mr. Boyer (a student feuding with the 23-year-old) that he should look into getting a restraining order on (name deleted) for his own safety."

Touron's choices and proximity to the truth as both principal and coach sparked a sidebar story about student athletes and record-keeping about their native countries and immigration status in schools across Collier County and the rest of Florida. That is only remotely related.

The larger point is that Immokalee High School, though 40 or so miles from Naples, is still very much a part of the Collier County Public Schools system. But that distance, coupled with the timing — at the end of the school year when everyone is tired and eager for summer break — makes the over-age players incident ripe for quickly becoming out of sight, out of mind.

Still, the principles are huge. Just as Touron is accountable for what happens on his campus, school system officials, namely Superintendent Ray Baker, are accountable for the signal that they send to conclude all of this.