Brad Burke of the Peoria Journal Star reports in an article titled, “Dunlap dishes out polygraph ultimatum.” Excerpt:
DUNLAP – Officials at Dunlap Community High School issued an ultimatum Friday to 11 student-athletes suspected of attending an alcoholic party: Take a polygraph test or end your seasons.
And now a group of outraged parents has responded with a mandate of its own: Lose the lie detector or potentially face a lawsuit.
The battle of wills follows a party busted by the police early Oct. 7, at which several student-athletes allegedly were in attendance, according to a police report obtained by Dunlap Community School District 323 Superintendent Bill Collier.
Eleven of 14 the students in question denied they stayed at the party, which is a violation of the school’s athletic policy. In response, Collier demanded through a letter sent Friday that the students prove their innocence with a polygraph or stop competing on their respective fall sports teams.
“The story isn’t about the polygraph test, it’s about the inability for people to take accountability for their actions,” Collier said late Tuesday.
But several parents of the accused student-athletes – most of whom are football players, according to fellow students – vehemently oppose the polygraph.
“It’s not in the athletic code that we signed and the students signed,” said a parent of one accused student. That individual, who asked not to be identified, confirmed that a group of parents might take legal action against the school.