Friday, October 30, 1998

Poll: Saints’
punishment fair

About half of those polled
also said the media didn't blow
the St. Louis incident
out of proportion

By Al Chase
Star-Bulletin

St. Louis School president Father Mario Pariante was fair in handing out punishment to football players involved in an incident in Las Vegas last month, according to more than half of those polled by the Honolulu Star-Bulletin and NBC Hawaii News 8.

In the poll, conducted statewide Oct. 16-19 among 425 registered voters, 56 percent said the punishment was just, 29 percent said it was lenient, 9 percent said it was too harsh and 6 percent were not sure.

The telephone poll was taken by Mason-Dixon Political/Media Research Inc. of Columbia, Md., and has a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points.

Pariante imposed a four-day suspension of the football program and forfeited a game to Kamehameha. Players directly involved in the incident were given one-day suspensions from school and 20 hours of community service. No game suspensions were given.

Those polled also were asked if the media blew the St. Louis incident out of proportion.

More than half (52 percent) said the media did not, 37 percent said the media did and 11 percent were not sure.

When asked to comment on the poll's questions and results, St. Louis head football coach Cal Lee was straightforward, if not blunt, and questioned the wording of the questions. He first wanted to know what was meant by "unsupervised" in the first question.

"This unsupervised football players. What does that mean?" Lee said. "When I read somebody is unsupervised, that means nobody is around."

Lee had left the World Trade Center Hotel early on the morning of the incident, but the other coaches and chaperons were at the hotel.

"I'm the only one who left," Lee said. "And when they say they hired these strippers? I want to know where they got that information from. And damaging a hotel room? Those damages . . . I got two big kids sleeping on a bed and the bed falls down. That's damage, there is no question about it. But it has nothing to do with the drinking and strippers.

"Those things that were reported were done prior to even the game and (hotel) management knew about it. Everything that happened was done before the game.

"They tie everything in, like we went in and just tore up the place, which I feel is very unjust."

Lee indicated he was fed up with the continuing attention given the incidents.

"This thing has become really sickening," he said. "There's got to be something else going on. I mean politics is another thing that's happening, so I'm just kind of sick and tired of this."

Lee said he wasn't happy with the way the story was handled by the media -- and the Star-Bulletin.

"I don't really even talk to them (Star-Bulletin staffers) any more because I can't trust them," he said.

Pariante was on the mainland and unavailable for comment.