A recent editorial in this space criticized people who give school officials a hard time when their kids are disciplined.

The piece cited a recent case where a mother and son are accused by police of getting into a violent fracas with a high school principal when the teen was disciplined.

That's an extreme -- and outrageous -- case.

But more garden-variety examples of parents undermining school officials' authority by sticking up for their little angels -- even when they behave like little devils -- happen every week in our local schools.

In most instances, parents should stand behind school officials and reinforce disciplinary measures at home. That's just good parenting.

There are times, however, when school officials err and mete out injustices. In such cases, parents are within their rights and responsibilities to question and appeal.

There's a right way and wrong way to go about that, however.

A recent case in the South Eastern School District provides an example of a successful appeal of school punishment by parents -- resulting in a reasonable compromise.

Some 18 students were suspended from extracurricular activities -- including the prom, sports, graduation etc. -- when school officials received an anonymous package of photos from an online social networking site allegedly showing students near alcohol. None of the kids were seen in the photos actually drinking alcohol.

More than 100 parents protested the punishment to the

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school board, arguing there was no way to verify the anonymously sent photos -- they could have been digitally altered.

That seems unlikely. But when you're talking about denying students such rights of passage as prom and graduation, your evidence should be strong.

An anonymous Internet photo of someone "near" alcohol would not seem to qualify.

The board heard the parents' concerns and reduced the punishment to nine hours of detention. That seems fair -- though maybe a few more hours would have been more fitting, given the seriousness of teen alcohol use.

Now the board is being asked to re-address a similar case where last year a student was stripped of a varsity soccer letter -- and her father claims he lost his school coaching position -- because a photo was downloaded from the Internet and given anonymously to school officials. The photo purportedly showed the student with beer visible in the background.

The father and daughter say the picture was from a family New Year's Eve party where alcohol was available, but they say no minors drank.

True? Tough to say unless you're on the inside. But it's at least plausible.

This highlights the complications that can arise when school officials deputize themselves to police off-campus student behavior. There are certain circumstances where that's clearly appropriate -- on school trips, for instance -- but many argue persuasively that out-of-school discipline is first and mainly a parent's responsibility.

But what about parents who -- as the fight with the principal suggests -- are not likely to discipline their little angels and who undermine school authority?

That's a tough balancing act for people whose primary job is supposed to be educating kids.

The best advice is for parents to back up teachers' authority, appealing disciplinary measures only as a last resort or in cases of extreme injustice -- and without emotional overreaction. And school officials must handle such appeals fairly -- making sure they have adequate evidence to justify, say, denying graduation honors to otherwise good students.