Blogs, photo sites allow peek at athletes’ lives

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That applies to all students. But since athletes are the closest thing to celebrities at a college or high school, their risk of getting caught in the Web’s glare is that much greater.

Look at the photos that surfaced last week. Fraternities and sororities have gotten busted for hazing before, but those stories didn’t have the same impact as the pictures on badjocks.com.

“If there’s bad behavior going on, it doesn’t make it OK if somebody’s not an athlete,” said Bob Reno, creator of badjocks.com. “But there’s obviously more scrutiny as (athletic) programs make more money.”

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Added Iowa State’s Bugeja, “Student-athletes are high-profile students. And because they’re high-profile, what happens to student-athletes inherently becomes more newsworthy.”

Notoriety was one thing Planek was hoping to avoid when he banned Loyola’s athletes from Facebook. But he had other concerns, as well. Identify theft and personal safety. His athletes’ grades.

Their futures.

“We’ve worked all year to alert students to be more thoughtful instead of naively posting something on the Web about themselves,” said Yonie Harris, the dean of students at UC-Santa Barbara. “What’s acceptable in the student culture today might not be acceptable 20 years from now when that student is going for a serious job.

“It’s a developmental issue,” she added. “People of this age live very much in the present. They don’t see harm very easily in a lot of things. I think that’s why they take physical risks sometimes, and maybe they don’t see the risks of technology.”

While some grumble that attempts to crack down on posting is an invasion of privacy or a violation of First Amendment rights, educators say they’re well within their rights. Nobody is telling student-athletes they can’t post, said Prentiss Lea, the associate superintendent at Community High School District 128 in suburban Chicago, which voted this week to make inappropriate posts subject to disciplinary action.

They just want kids to be smarter about it.

“Teenagers would inherently look at it and say, ‘This is me and a couple of my friends talking back and forth, and it’s really nobody’s business,”’ Lea said. “The courts have ruled consistently that because (extracurricular activities) are an extension of the school day, it is a privilege, not a right. So schools can create expectations of behavior.”

Planek said athletes already are held to a higher standard. They face rules and restrictions for grades, eligibility, gambling, and drug and alcohol use that regular students don’t.

“As I told it to our student-athletes, parents entrust the well-being of their student-athletes with the university and with the athletic department,” Planek said. “I look at it as protecting and maintaining the well-being of the student-athletes, and making sure they’re in a safe environment.”

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