It’s a big high school football playoff game at Mount Pleasant Area School District Friday night, but when their team takes the field, a half-dozen players will be missing. That’s because of what happened in a locker room at the team’s last away game.Pittsburgh’s Action News 4 confirmed that nearly $1,000 in vandalism damage in the visiting team locker room was discovered at Southmoreland School District last week, as Mount Pleasant Area was there and played its biggest rival. Mount Pleasant Area was faced with hard questions when it learned of what happened.”Was this an individual, was this a group of individuals, was this an entire team? Because, to be perfectly honest with you, if you have a scenario where it’s an entire team, there would have been a decision as to whether we were going to move forward with playing a football game (tonight),” Superintendent Timothy Gabauer, of Mt. Pleasant Area School District, told Pittsburgh’s Action News 4.Gabauer saw Southmoreland’s photos of the damage and launched an investigation. He says he’s frustrated and disappointed and he says the students responsible will pay.”There was discipline both school-wide discipline as well as athletic discipline and there’s also restitution for any of those items,” Gabauer said.Friday night, Mount Pleasant Area hosts East Allegheny for a big playoff game. But if the six players had not been identified, the whole team could have suffered consequences.”If I thought this was a team problem, a pervasive problem, I could not in good conscience put a team out there on the field for a playoff game, knowing that being the case,” Gabauer said.The discipline of the six sends a message of no special treatment for players’ bad behavior.”That’s a common thought out there that there are special privileges that go along, but I can guarantee you that is not the case here nor will it ever be the case while I’m in this position,” Gabauer said.Southmoreland District’s Assistant Superintendent Dr. Jason Boone told Pittsburgh’s Action News 4 that the two districts worked together closely and well on the incident. He said he’s confident Mount Pleasant Area “did their due diligence.”Gabauer said his district has been investigating and addressing the situation throughout this week.”It’s frustrating, it’s hard for us to deal with as a school, it’s challenging for the community to deal with, but it’s our responsibility to deal with it and we’re doing that,” Gabauer said.
It’s a big high school football playoff game at Mount Pleasant Area School District Friday night, but when their team takes the field, a half-dozen players will be missing. That’s because of what happened in a locker room at the team’s last away game.
Pittsburgh’s Action News 4 confirmed that nearly $1,000 in vandalism damage in the visiting team locker room was discovered at Southmoreland School District last week, as Mount Pleasant Area was there and played its biggest rival.
Mount Pleasant Area was faced with hard questions when it learned of what happened.
“Was this an individual, was this a group of individuals, was this an entire team? Because, to be perfectly honest with you, if you have a scenario where it’s an entire team, there would have been a decision as to whether we were going to move forward with playing a football game (tonight),” Superintendent Timothy Gabauer, of Mt. Pleasant Area School District, told Pittsburgh’s Action News 4.
Gabauer saw Southmoreland’s photos of the damage and launched an investigation. He says he’s frustrated and disappointed and he says the students responsible will pay.
“There was discipline both school-wide discipline as well as athletic discipline and there’s also restitution for any of those items,” Gabauer said.
Friday night, Mount Pleasant Area hosts East Allegheny for a big playoff game. But if the six players had not been identified, the whole team could have suffered consequences.
“If I thought this was a team problem, a pervasive problem, I could not in good conscience put a team out there on the field for a playoff game, knowing that being the case,” Gabauer said.
The discipline of the six sends a message of no special treatment for players’ bad behavior.
“That’s a common thought out there that there are special privileges that go along, but I can guarantee you that is not the case here nor will it ever be the case while I’m in this position,” Gabauer said.
Southmoreland District’s Assistant Superintendent Dr. Jason Boone told Pittsburgh’s Action News 4 that the two districts worked together closely and well on the incident. He said he’s confident Mount Pleasant Area “did their due diligence.”
Gabauer said his district has been investigating and addressing the situation throughout this week.
“It’s frustrating, it’s hard for us to deal with as a school, it’s challenging for the community to deal with, but it’s our responsibility to deal with it and we’re doing that,” Gabauer said.
