Fayette

County High School band members and their parents

should decide early next week whether to accept

an offer to play at the 2000 Summer Olympic Games

in Sydney, Australia.

"We

decided to wait another week," said Kenny

Beard, FCHS band director.

New

developments over the dispute involving Fayette

County's band and approximately 1,300 other

students from the U.S. and Japan, who were

originally planning to play at the Games' opening

ceremonies, prompted Beard and his group to wait

and see what happens.

According

to a recent story in The Sydney Morning Herald,

Sydney's Olympic Organizing Committee was

informed that students cut from the opening

ceremonies had a right to sue. The location of an

office of the Sydney Olympic Broadcasting

Organization in Utah legally allows American band

members to instigate legal action against the

organizing committee. The committee chief

executive Sandy Hollway also stated in the

article that American band members could

anticipate a refund or a price reduction in the

trip fee if they agreed to accept his committee's

offer to play at alternate venues.

Fayette

County High School band is the only remaining

American group still considering an offer to

participate in the games. Walton High School in

Cobb County and the California schools have

pulled out of the trip organized by World

Projects Corp. The newspaper states that legal

action has been taken by World Projects to force

the Sydney Olympic Committee to either uphold its

contract with the bands to perform at the opening

games or pay them damages.

"We're

hoping to make a decision by Aug. 9," Beard

said. "We lost the opening games, but they

(Olympic Committee) came back with a really good

thing," he said. The proposal includes the

band playing at the Sydney Opera House and

additional venues. Beard is upbeat about the

offer, and says it provides a good educational

experience for the students.

"Each

family will be polled individually," Beard

added, explaining how the band will reach a

consensus.

The

Olympic Committee's decision to revoke an

invitation to 1,500 students, described as

"foreign nationals" to perform in the

opening ceremony, sparked an international

incident. The Australians felt the American and

Japanese musicians far outnumbered those from

Australia and the other nations participating in

the Games.

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