Due process? Not in Ohio schools!

This story proves America's judicial system is just pulling ideas out of its ass as it's going along.

Make no mistake about it: Student athletes are often mollycoddled and not held to the same stringent standards as other students. This is true from grade school through college. We all know that if an athlete breaks a school rule, they are likely to face a far milder penalty than other students who violate the same rule.

The same is true if an athlete commits a crime.

We've all seen this double standard firsthand, so let's not kid ourselves. It's like this because schools don't want to lose their players.

But is it fair for schools to punish athletes whose alleged crime took place away from school and who might be innocent?

Of course not. But an Ohio appeals court thinks...it is!

Due process took a beating yesterday in the Cincinnati-based state court, when the court ruled that public school students who participate in sports or other extracurricular activities can be punished for conduct that takes place away from school, even if they have not been proven guilty - even if the alleged offense occurs during summer break.

This ruling sprouted from a case in which a high school football player was cited for under-age drinking and possession of alcohol. The incident did not occur at school or any school-related function. In fact, it was during summer vacation.

And he was never convicted, so his guilt was never proven.

Despite this, he was required to sit out several games.

Ohio law used to allow students to appeal certain school-imposed punishments. But the legislature - which at the time was Republican-controlled - gutted this law.

The court's ruling yesterday says students have no right to an appeal - or to any due process. The jurists' so-called reasoning for robbing due process of pupils accused of off-campus offenses is that public schools are statutory boards.

Appeals Court Judge Mark Painter wrote, "School boards are statutory boards created by the Ohio General Assembly. There is no right to appeal a school board's decision absent an express statutory right to appeal."

Um??? If they're statutory boards (i.e., the government), shouldn't that mean that there is a right to appeal?

Painter also wrote that it is not the role of the court "to create a right to appeal" because "the legislature is the only body that may create such a right."

Er, nope. That right was already listed under the Constitution's due process safeguards. You don't have to create a right that already exists. Most rights listed by America's great Constitution are natural rights that all humans are endowed with - so these rights predate even the Constitution.

I guess Ohio is no longer part of the world, if a natural right like due process can be taken away. This ruling is judicial activism at its near-worst.

(Source: http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20090314/NEWS0102/903140326/-1/NEWS010703)