As Trista Harker's parent, I am very disturbed by Mr. Averio's letter. Mr. Averio is entitled to his opinions, but before he starts making wild accusations about my daughter or myself behaving inappropriately, he needs to get his facts straight.
I was at the Fallon meet and Trista was running around with her sports bra under her sling. As for her hair, if I didn't pull it up, her manager did or Coach Bennett volunteered to do it for her. Not one time did the coach neglect your little boy because of Trista.
In regard to the running around and whining, you need to figure out which girl is which because Trista was not the one who was acting "girlie." Trista is not your typical little girl. She loves this sport and has been involved in it for seven years. Several of the boys on the team have commented that Trista is a hard worker and Coach Bennett agreed with them. I think the only whining going on around here is from men who live in the dark ages and continue to discriminate against females in general.
I am glad that you brought up inappropriate behavior, though, because I would like to know if you consider it appropriate for one of the boys to get caught out of his room, after curfew, with a girl. But I suppose that kind of behavior is OK because, after all, "boys will be boys." And how dare you tell me to shut up and get involved in my daughter's life. For your information, I go to Trista's meets and have been at some of her practices. Obviously you don't know who I am or you would know this.
And nobody said it was your little boy who hurt Trista. The fact is she was hurt by someone bringing his knee directly down on her wrist, not a legal "fireman's carry" the last time I checked. The problem here is not Trista's behavior but the fact that the women have been discriminated against as long as there have been women. Coach Bennett's behavior was inappropriate because he did not follow his own rule of "two strikes and you're out." I guess it's two strikes only if you are a girl.
As for girls being on your Little League teams, I checked that out. There were no girls on your team last year, and you protested them being on your team in previous years. I'll bet that if you had a daughter, your outlook would be very different and you would be just as upset as I am. Just remember, this is a public school, not a private boys' school.
TERRI SCHLIDT
Stagecoach
