Not in my locker room

By Steve Reich

I’ve been a coach for 33 years and played sports throughout high school and college, and I know what does and doesn’t fly in a well-run locker room. A few days ago, Donald Trump suggested that the profane, sexist, predatory comments he made on a bus tour were fine in my world — just boys being boys, just “locker room banter.” He was wrong.

First, he needs to get a grip on the facts. He wasn’t in a locker room. He was hot-miked on a tour bus that was part of a celebrity TV show. He was spewing foul comments while a sniveling host was goading him on. Had he been in my locker room, you can be certain that this coach would have come down hard on his behavior.

The locker-room line shows that Donald Trump clearly doesn’t get what a good physical education teacher or coach does. We don’t show up just to run sports teams, count pushups or clock sprint times and then clock out, as if that’s all our students need. Our biggest job is to help kids become good, decent human beings. We’re trying to help students grow into men and women whose lives are guided by courage, by respect for others, by fortitude and perseverance, by all the building blocks of good character.

That’s the heavy lift in my work. And I’m by no means special: All good PE teachers and coaches take this part of the job very seriously. And all responsible adults know they have a role, too, when it comes to raising good kids with strong character. We’re out there trying our best, even in a world where the wind is sometimes in our faces — from outrageous social media behavior to life-cheapening video games. And now, those headwinds include a politician who spews inexcusable filth and passes it off as acceptable “locker room banter.”

We’re out there trying our best, even in a world where the wind is sometimes in our faces — from outrageous social media behavior to life-cheapening video games. And now, those headwinds include a politician who spews inexcusable filth and passes it off as acceptable “locker room banter.”

As you might expect, I wasn’t counting on having my work undercut by some 59-year-old, private-school-educated wealthy white man — modeling behavior that I would never tolerate from my kids at school.

People who educate have been trying to eradicate this type of behavior for a long time. We teach that good men and good women treat those around them with decency and respect. We try to elevate the next generation by instilling a strong moral compass. It’s stuff Donald Trump likes to talk about from the stump — leaving something better behind for the next generation — but he doesn’t get what’s involved in that work. It takes more than just a better-paying job and a higher standard of living; you also need a life that’s shaped by character, by respect and compassion for everyone around you.

As a coach, I’d say Donald Trump needs to work on his fundamentals. He needs to learn what is and isn’t acceptable conduct. And one more thing: He needs to stop passing off his ugly comments as appropriate and acceptable in my domain. What he calls “locker room banter” is stuff we work hard to shut down in school.

Social studies teacher and coach Steve Reich is also president of the Valhalla (N.Y.) Teachers Association.