HS Senior Baseball Players Pose For Picture Without Masks, Get Suspended ... Makes Sense

It's your senior year of high school, and you're a baseball player getting ready to compete with your teammates for the last time. One final ride with your boys, and so your moms decide to get pictures taken to remember the moment.

Harmless, right? Wrong ... or at least that's what Burbank Unified School District superintendent Matt Hill and John Burroughs High School say. They apparently think that move is worth a two-week suspension.

Why? Because the eight senior baseball players who did it on school property weren't wearing masks. We'll ignore that these guys compete next to each other on the field, in the weight room and everywhere else.

I'm sure they're all friends, and it doesn't look like anyone else was around.

Irrelevant, though ... these players broke the "rules" and must be punished for it. I'm sure they really learned their lesson, don't you? Or maybe the only thing these athletes learned is there are a lot of absurdly over-the-top, power-hungry people teaching "life lessons" to our youth.

Now, those players have a two-week suspension that will prevent them preparing as a team for their final season together -- at least on school grounds.

"We had a group of players and families dress up in uniform and take pictures on campus in violation of health orders (no masks, no social distancing, and mixing of families)," Hill said via email on the Daily News. “They then posted the picture on a JBHS baseball social media site. No player or family from the team notified the coach, school, or district of this health order violation.”

"I have decided to delay the return of athletic conditioning for the JBHS baseball team by one week so that the team can review health guidelines and safety protocols. I look forward to the team beginning conditioning on Monday, safely."

These seniors, like many other kids around the country, have already lost a year to COVID-19. Cases are plummeting, and the vaccine is being distributed. Is the fight over? No, but it's heading in the right direction.

Apparently, wanting pictures at the school you represent -- and wanting those faces in the picture to be seen -- is completely out of line.

Jo Dee Freck, whose son was one of the seniors on the team, was the one taking the pictures.

"Our boys have been teammates and friends for years prior to Burroughs, which has brought the families so close,” Freck said. "The kids have lost (almost) an entire year. This photo was taken with the idea to commemorate and remember their senior season. The boys were just trying to make their moms happy."

Simply explaining that the photoshoot broke school protocols wasn't enough, even though it was unintentional. No, we've got to make an example of these boys. Great job, everybody. Sigh.