Athletes present concerns about running protocol
By Ken Powers Community Reporter

Westborough High School track team members (l to r) Dave Brown and Mark Vanacore model the Free Ruggles T-shirts designed by fellow students Steve Lanciani and Cam Piper. PHOTO/KEN POWERS

Westborough - Confusion over a recently instituted running protocol prompted Westborough High School (WHS) student athletes Dave Brown, Mark Vanacore and Tom McDonough to present their concerns and seek clarification on some issues of the guideline at the School Committee's March 5 meeting.

"We realize our safety is/ was the basis for all of this," Brown said, "but it seems like they've totally over-reacted about it."

A the center of the dispute is the district's banning of athletes and sports teams conducting off-campus training runs down Ruggles Street.

While the students didn't like the rule, because the majority of the off -campus training run included portions of Ruggles Street as well as Adams, Bowman, Mount Pleasant, Eli Whitney, Chestnut, Deerslayer and Denny streets, many became outraged when they were told that the ban included not only in-season training runs, but all runs.

To protest the ban and support their fellow students, Steve Lanciani and Cam Piper designed bright yellow and green T-shirts that say "Free Ruggles" on the front and have a Ruggles Street sign intersecting another one that says, "Freedom Road." Listed on the back of the shirt are all the streets that are included in the ban. The list is set up so that it makes the aff ected streets appear to be political prisoners.

Brown said the T-shirts have been wildly successful, selling out every time they arrive. He is in the process of putting in his fourth order.

Vanacore said that when he understood he would face disciplinary action if he was found running on those streets, even during the off-season, even when leaving and returning to his home, he felt he had to say something.

"This is still America, right?" Vanacore asked rhetorically.

School Superintendent Anne Towle told Vanacore at the March 5 School Committee meeting that the ban did not include when he went running from his own house.

"The ban on running on any of those streets involves leaving from and returning to the High School before and after those runs," Towle said. "In addition, if you drive to the school and park on school property and leave on a run from the parking lot, even on the weekend, you can't run those streets.

"When you leave from home you're not the School Department's responsibility," Towle also said. "You're your parents' responsibility. If they want to let you run on those roads, that's fine. But when you're our responsibility, we think it's in your best interest, which we're responsible for at that time, to not let you run on those roads."

Brown, Vanacore and Mc- Donough were scheduled to meet with the School Department's safety committee March 10 to try and further clarify the running protocol and what is and what isn't allowed.