Ever since a group of 33 students from Cherryfield and Columbia Falls and Harrington gathered six weeks ago at a party where alcohol was consumed, parents and administrators Down East have found themselves mired in a battle over what to do next.

Now, a committee of students and teachers and parents and administrators has settled on an interesting idea that may raise hackles across the region.

The offending students can rejoin clubs by attending a substance abuse course and performing 10 hours of community service.

The catch?

Athletes need not apply: Narraguagus High is upholding the six-month suspensions from sports teams that it previously meted out to party-goers.

The reason?

Athletes are governed by a separate athletic code that spells out exactly what will happen to them if they attend such a party. Every athlete and his or her parents are required to sign the document before each season.

Principal Peter Doak, an old-school type who remembers living by a strict set of team rules when he played football in the 1950s, is understandably frustrated by the resulting ruckus.

“Now, somebody breaks a rule and we want to have a school board meeting,” he said this week. “It’s ridiculous.”

Welcome to the ’90s. The era of negotiable morality continues.

The fact of the matter – one that SAD 37 seems to be keeping a grip on – is that its athletes made an agreement. They signed a contract.

And now? Those athletes are simply being asked to live up to their end of the bargain.

The argument can be made that a single extracurricular policy ought to govern all student activities.

The argument can be made that the existing policy may be too strict.

And the argument can be made that the policy cuts too broad a swath, casting troubled substance abusers in the same negative light as shy followers who just want to hang out with the “in” crowd.

But guess what?

Those arguments weren’t made until after 33 kids got caught doing what kids sometimes do and were faced with disciplinary action.

Don’t like the policies? Change them. Next year.

This isn’t really a Narraguagus thing, of course. It’s an every-school thing.

This year, Narraguagus students pay the price, and sports won’t be the same for awhile. Too many athletes have been lost for that.

But one purpose of any good disciplinary policy is to deter future acts. And next year, the students in Cheryfield and Harrington and Columbia Falls will remember what happened.

Kids everywhere ought to remember it.

These students gambled. They lost. And I’m sure it hurts.

Mistakes are like that.

But in this case, there can be a positive outcome. And it won’t come by bending and letting the athletes back. Go ahead and hold this group to their promises.

Then stand back and watch what happens.

Life’s funny. Tucked neatly within the debris of all the might-have-beens are lessons. You can find the nuggets and grow. You can fight them and repeat mistakes.

Or, you can have your mistakes forgiven and never have to deal with any consequences.

Ten years from now, a generation of former Narraguagus athletes may know what that means.

John Holyoke is a NEWS sportswriter.