Netters:
Perhaps the real villains in the continued existence of such stupid
rules as the "hair jewelrt" cited in a recent posting is the press.
I can assure you that if we still had the number and variety of
newspapers that we enjoyed when I entered the profession, there would be
someone out there willing to do a series on the track rulebook (and some
editor willing to print it). Ridicule is the way to get rid of it.
Failing that, there are two avenues: legislative/executive
and judicial. The first is cumbersome and would probably break down
somewhere along the road. The second has more hope since, while private (if
the National federation, with its predominantly public school membership,
can qualify as private) oprganizations can make their own rules, a number of
court cases in various fields have made it clear that such rules must be
consistent---and their is nothing consistent about having the same penalty
for a race-affecting violation on the one hand and such piddling stuff as
wearing miniscule jewelry or a Spartan dress code on the other.
Of course, common sense does help. One way is that used by a
meet directoir in NJ last spring---before action began, he assembled the
officials and told them quite palinly he did not want any d/qs of this
kind---it would be Ok to warn athletes to get rid of offending jewelry
before a race, but once it began, all bets were off. This would not, of
course, work in a championship meet run by the association or like-minded
conferences, but it would be a start.
Ed
Grant
