Students’ treatment vexes Baileyville parents

BAILEYVILLE – A New Year’s Eve bash that resulted in some teenagers being kicked off the high school basketball team for alleged drinking has some parents fighting mad.

And the issue will not go away.

Earlier this week, a group of parents and students attended the Baileyville school board meeting to complain about alleged unequal treatment students received at the hands of administrators.

According to the parents, nearly 20 students attended one or two parties at homes in Meddybemps.

Woodland High School administrators conducted their own investigation. It led to the suspension of seven students from all extracurricular activities, including membership in the National Honor Society.

“Of those seven,” said Tonya Troiani, whose niece senior Lauren Troiani, 18, was thrown off the basketball team, two “got to recant” their confessions – an allegation that school administrators do not dispute.

Some who attended one of the parties reported that partygoers allegedly were asked to relinquish their car keys at the door.

Police Chief Phil Harriman said Wednesday that he was aware of the parties but, because they were in Meddybemps, they were outside his department’s jurisdiction.

Washington County Chief Deputy Sid Hughes said Thursday his department was unaware of the parties but, if he were to receive a complaint, his department would investigate. He said the investigation could lead to summonses being issued for furnishing a place for minors to consume alcohol.

The father of Lauren Troiani, Joe Troiani, told the school board that the student who served as host of one of the parties was not removed from any extracurricular activities. “My daughter lost everything she’s worked [for] all the way through high school,” he said.

His daughter told the school board that she attempted to recant, but administrators told her that she could not. She said she questioned Principal Craig King about allowing one of the students to recant.

“I can’t make the world a fair place,” the principal told the school board Tuesday night. “There are people who do things wrong all the time. There are people that drink and drive. Some get caught. Some don’t.”

Senior Andrew Scott said in an interview he was never questioned about his participation in a party. Instead, he said, administrators accused him of drinking, and his parents were not present when administrators interrogated him.

Junior Josh Curtis said, also in an interview, he didn’t have a chance to tell his mother he was no longer the basketball team’s manager. He said administrators told his mother, who sells concession tickets at games.

Tonya Troiani told the school board that for equitable treatment, either the two students who recanted should be removed from extracurricular activities or the other five students should be reinstated. “You can’t not tell five students that if you tell the truth you’re going to be nailed, and you let two other students recant,” she said. “It’s not right.”

She also asked the board if it would review its policy. “We could form a committee and review the policies,” Chairman Lawrence “Gus” Gillis said. “And then if we decide to make any changes, then we will. But we can’t just inadvertently change the policy here and now.”

The board took no action to form a panel to reconsider the policy.

After the parents left the meeting, Superintendent Barry McLaughlin said he supported his administrators. “It is very often that school officials and the administrators and the coaches and the athletic directors and all those people get beat up. They have to take their lumps because, despite what [we] would like, they are not at liberty to say everything they know,” he said.