Sometimes, Des Moines school board member Jonathan Narcisse is his own worst enemy. Take the recent dust-up over his X-rated e-mail message to a Roosevelt High School student who will miss six weeks of wrestling because he flunked a math class.

Buried in the body of a long message in response to the student was a gratuitous reference to a sex act, which of course got all the attention and distracted from Narcisse's main point: Focus on your school work because it will pay greater rewards in life than high school sports.

Good advice. It's too bad Narcisse's wise counsel was marred by his unfortunate tendency to be reckless in his own public conduct. He contends the crude reference to oral sex is commonplace, but not for a school board member in a communication to a minor student. As a result, what could have been a teaching moment has turned into a public feud with understandably outraged parents.

Let's take time to consider the underlying issue, though. It's easy to see how this student, now a sophomore, feels cheated: As a freshman, he was enrolled in a junior-level algebra class, which he failed. As a result, under the state's no-pass, no-play rule, he must sit on the bench for six weeks during the coming wrestling season.

"I honestly don't think it's fair that I have to sit out for some of my wrestling season for 'challenging myself,' " the student wrote in an e-mail to members of the Des Moines school board.

Narcisse's response: Life isn't fair, and "instead of complaining about the tough rules, which by the way apply to everyone, you need to suck it up, ask what help you can get to be a better student and then focus on more than meeting the minimum but ask what can you do to truly excel in the classroom."

That is good advice. The top priority for all students should be in the classroom, not in the gym, and if they are failing any class they need to focus on that before taking on other challenges. If it takes being benched to give students a wake-up call, so be it.

What of the Roosevelt student's concern about being punished for taking a more challenging math class? Turn the question around: Should students who are talented enough academically to take more challenging classes be given a break on the no-pass rule? If so, should mediocre students who are equally struggling in less-challenging classes also be given the break when their best is not good enough?

The reality is Iowa's no-pass, no-play rule will result in hardships on students across the spectrum of academic talent. That may seem unfair to them at the time, but that brief hardship will be worthwhile if they buckle down. Whereas high-school athletics is a brief pastime for all but a tiny percentage of top athletes, getting a good education can pay lifetime dividends for anyone.

If students are forced by the no-pass, no-play rule to hit the books harder to earn a right to participate in sports, more students will get the message that academics take precedence over athletics. Giving them a break sends the message that the opposite is true.

Narcisse had the right message. Too bad he didn't choose his words more carefully.