School Superintendent Lawrence Pereira confirmed recent reports by Newsday that the 15 Massapequa High School baseball players initially removed from the team after visiting an adult nightclub in Cocoa Beach during a school trip were notified by letter earlier this week that both their team and three-day school suspensions were being upheld.

Pereira had originally delayed the suspensions while awaiting the outcome of the appeals process. The letter said all 15 players would be reinstated to the team by season's end.

However, an interview with former head coach Bob Dell shed light on the school's appeals process, as well as on the board's decision to relieve both Dell and his assistant coach, Tom Sheedy, of their coaching duties.

Dell expressed shock and dismay about the incident, claiming that his rules while on these trips were even tougher than the school's, and that he and Sheedy had been "outsnookered" by the kids.

"I've been taking kids on trips now for close to 40 years, as far away as China and Holland," he said. "My policy, on top of whatever the school said, was that if they broke any of the rules they would be put on the next plane and sent home. We thought we ran a tight ship."

Dell explained that, in concordance with the school's open campus policy, the kids were provided with two hours of free time while in Florida. They were told they could go down by the beach, walk the pier, and go to a number of fast food restaurants if they wanted something to eat. He said that the boys seemed satisfied with the opportunity to renew their acquaintances with girls from several athletic teams they had met up with the previous year.

"In all honesty, I walked the beach with some of the kids that night," Dell said, "and the other coach did the same. We didn't see any strip club."

Dell said that at 10 p.m., when all the kids were back in the vans, he would go up to each one individually and speak to him so he could check his breath for alcohol. When he got back to the complex, he would turn the lights on in the students' rooms so he could check their eyes to see if their pupils were dilated.

There were 16 parents on the trip, but they were relieved of their chaperoning duties at this time.

Dell said he had no idea the students had visited the club until eight or nine days after they returned home. When he first learned about the visit to Sassy Merlot's, he remembers saying, "What? These kids? Impossible." However, he doesn't doubt that at least some of the kids went into the club.

He does take issue, however, with the methods used to elicit a confession from the teens, and with blanket punishments that were handed down.

After a parent sent an anonymous letter alerting school officials of the incident, the players were brought in for questioning by athletic director Igor Bishko. Each was asked to give a written statement about his involvement or his punishment would be doubled. Neither Dell nor Sheedy was ever permitted to see these statements.

Dell said he was able to talk to some of the kids on the way out. "One student said he went to the door of Merlot's, looked in and walked away. Another student went inside but left when he found out they wanted to charge him 15 bucks. Another kid was absent that particular day and did not even write out his confession and was suspended anyway. They took away due process."

Dell said he was supposed to be on the hearing committee with Principal James Maloney and Bishko, where together they were to come up with an appropriate punishment. The former head coach said he was pushing for a punishment that fit the crime.

"Perhaps some of the kids were intimidated, some were scared. Were they leaders or followers? Did they look in the window, or did they actually go in and sit down? How many times in the evening did they go in? What were their academic and disciplinary records like? Were they first time or repeat offenders? All of this should have been taken into account. I believe that different gradations of punishment were necessary."

At a meeting following the incident, Dell was notified that all the students were to be suspended. "I said that this is the punishment that the superintendent and the athletic director came up with - that it wasn't my recommendation. I'm not a rubber stamp. If we're going to give a hearing, it should be a true hearing and not a bogus one, where you listen to all the facts. If a kid is innocent I'm not going to punish him, and if he is guilty, I'll punish him, but there has to be a learning process involved in this."

After that, Pereira informed Dell that the board was suspending him for lack of supervision until further notice. Sheedy was suspended as well, but contrary to previous reports elsewhere, his teaching was never interrupted.

Dell, who is currently retired, explained that last year was supposed to be his final year as coach. He claims that Bishko had designs to take those teachers who were retired and replace them with younger coaches in the district. "When I found out, I said to him, 'I think our record, and what we did in this school doesn't warrant this. We've won 10 out of 12 championships, and 60 scholarships in 12 years. Doesn't that figure into anything?"

When parents of students on Dell's team found out he was being relieved, they were furious. "As it turned out," Dell explained, "they weren't relieving everyone who was retired, just those who weren't on good terms with the athletic director."

The parents fought against Dell being relieved and won. He was reinstated for the year. But, in an unprecedented move, the board hired Sheedy for the following year.

Prior to leaving for the Florida trip, Dell had filed age discrimination suit against the Massapequa schools.

Pereira declined to comment on the student suspensions, or the status of the coaches.