March 29, 2006

Anger and Consequences

Something ugly happened at party held by members of Duke University’s lacrosse team March 13. Whether a gang rape took place, as a woman has charged, isn’t clear. But even without that allegation, it would be a disturbing picture:

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At a gathering in an off-campus home, some members of the highly ranked team were gathered — and drinking. Lacrosse is a sport largely played by white athletes — 46 of the Duke squad’s 47 members are white. Those at the party called an escort service to provide two “private dancers,” who arrived to put on a show for the students. One of the women was also a college student — at North Carolina Central University, a historically black institution also in Durham, Duke’s home.

This woman, a mother of two, was helping to finance her education by working for the service.

According to the woman, she thought she was going to a small gathering, and was shocked to find herself and her fellow dancer surrounded by more than 40 college men, who shouted racial slurs at them. She also says that three members of the team raped her in a bathroom at the house.

No charges have been filed and team members have told the university that no rape took place. But in the last week, as word of the charges has become public, Duke has faced daily protests on campus, anger in the local community, and shock from faculty members and fans. Last night, Duke announced that it was suspending the lacrosse season, pending the outcome of investigations into the party. A statement from President Richard H. Brodhead said that the suspension comes at the request of the team members and with the backing of Duke’s board. In his statement, he stressed both his concern about the seriousness of the charges and the importance of letting the legal process play out — at a time that facts about the party are in dispute.

“In this painful period of uncertainty, it is clear to me, as it was to the players, that it would be inappropriate to resume the normal schedule of play,” Brodhead said. “Sports have their time and place, but when an issue of this gravity is in question, it is not the time to be playing games.”

Experts on athletes, gender, race and violence were generally not shocked by the reports of the March 13 party. They said that all campuses with big-time athletics programs are vulnerable — and need to pay attention to what’s going on at Duke right now.

Earl Smith, a professor of sociology at Wake Forest University who has written and taught extensively about athletes, race and gender, said that whenever he talks about these subjects on a campus, he gets visits from women later — women who lower their voices and then say, “I need to tell you about something that happened to me” or “I need to tell you about something I saw last night.” And their stories usually involve athletes, alcohol and behavior that runs the gamut from rudeness to racism to rape.

He had such a visit Tuesday morning from a woman, he said. “This is always a small fire waiting to explode.”

The Duke lacrosse incident has all the elements: race, gender, class and athletics. To Smith, this situation is about the lack of respect that male athletes have for women, and about the sense of freedom they have to do things that disrespect women. Even leaving aside the issue of rape, he said, it’s infuriating that many college athletes accept the idea of hiring strippers as normal college behavior. For starters, he said, educators need to loudly say that the practice is degrading.

“When college students hire strippers, they are saying that these people aren’t valued,” Smith said. “When you stick a dollar bill up a woman’s crotch, you are doing something you wouldn’t do with a girlfriend or wife or sister. This is about saying that these people have no value.”

Michael A. Messner, author of Taking the Field: Women, Men and Sports, said that this incident reflects a culture prevalent on many teams that needs more attention. Even if elements of this culture are not surprising, people don’t like to think about it until there is an incident, he said.

“Groups of men bond together through sexually aggressive activities. Sometimes it’s just verbal boasting or joking. Sometimes it’s watching porno, or creating porno by hiring strippers, and sometimes it might go to sexual assault or rape, and the line from one to the other can get real fuzzy when alcohol is involved,” said Messner, chair of sociology at the University of Southern California.

Team culture needs to be monitored and in some cases changed, said Todd Crosset, who was an all-American swimmer as an undergraduate at the University of Texas at Austin, has been a coach and assistant athletics director at the college level, and currently studies the sociology of sports at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

“The first thing you have to ask is, ‘Why did these guys think it was OK to hire a stripper?’” he said. “Why is that OK? What are you telling the team about conduct?”

He also said that coaches and colleges need to get more comfortable talking with male athletes about masculinity because the failure to do so — especially when dealing with sports where aggressive, physical play is the norm — leaves players with potentially bad ways to express their feelings. “A group party is a demonstration of masculinity. That’s what’s going on there.”

Then there is the issue of race. The public image of college athletics is one of integration, and on many campuses, teams are well integrated — often with more cross-racial friendships than may be found elsewhere on campus. Indeed, many point to colleges’ success attracting black athletes and ask why colleges can’t be more successful at diversifying their student bodies as a whole.

But experts note that this incident has drawn attention to another, less integrated side of race and sports. The reason the racial make-up of the lacrosse team is known is that the woman who filed the rape complaint said that her attackers were white team members — so the authorities collecting DNA were able to exclude any non-white members of the team. That was 1 of 47. In campus discussions of the incident, and with Durham’s black community, that ratio has been the noted repeatedly, as has lacrosse’s association with wealth — and those facts certainly contrast with the diverse image colleges like to portray of athletics.

“A lot of American sports are pretty apartheid-like,” said Donna A. Lopiano, executive director of the Women’s Sports Foundation. But that’s an issue people don’t like to talk about, she said, and so they normally don’t (at least not in public ways).

The flip side of the fact that this party was organized by white athletes is that it counters the stereotype of the black athlete as the source of campus problems.

“What these allegations show is that bad behavior is bad behavior. There is no particular group or race that can be excused,” said Charlotte Westerhaus, vice president of diversity and inclusion at the National Collegiate Athletic Association. She also said that the NCAA did not like the idea that some sports are seen as “white” (or any other racial category). “We don’t accept that,” she said. “We think everyone should have opportunity in every sport.”

So what more can colleges do to prevent the kinds of situations that can escalate as the party did at Duke (and has happened at numerous other campuses before)?

Messner, of Southern California, urged more attention to educating the people who may be bystanders to an incident or potential incident. It’s too easy for athletes to zone out when they are getting a lecture about not sexually assaulting women by just saying to themselves that they wouldn’t do that. But in many incidents involving teams, he said, it’s clear that there is an audience or others in the vicinity. A few players hired strippers, while many others — some of whom never would have done so — didn’t say anything. If a rape took place, and in past incidents where rapes did take place elsewhere, team members would know what was going on.

“When these things happen, two or three guys do it, and a lot of other guys are there — doing nothing,” Messner said. So he urges colleges to focus more of their educational efforts not on lectures against violence against women, but on lectures about not ignoring violence against women. “In these group situations, the most effective interventions are other members of the group.”

Messner said that team loyalty can also work in favor of educators. In the Duke case, many of the students who have been calling for tougher action against the team have said that team members are protecting one another. Messner said that athletes do take the idea of protecting a friend’s back into judicial situations, but that instead, colleges need to promote the idea — prevalent on the field — that all team members are responsible for one another. So preventing an incident is a team obligation. “You can take values they think about on the field, and apply them,” he said.

Crosset of UMass said that the Duke incident pointed to an end run by some athletes around an important NCAA reform in the 1990s, when the association barred “athletic dormitories” in which teams lived together. Proponents of the reform said that the dorms separated athletes from the college experience and the student body — and may have given some athletes a sense that they were “above” other students.

The reform was a very important one, Crosset said. But noting that the Duke party took place at an off-campus house rented by the lacrosse team’s three captains, he said, “if athletes just do off campus what they once did in athletic dorms, is [the reform] working?”

At Duke, while students have been protesting, many faculty members feel dismayed, said Paul H. Haagen, a professor of law and head of Duke’s Academic Council. Haagen said that he believes Duke is doing all it can to help the police investigations — while not doing things that could result in students being denied due process. (Duke released an FAQ on the entire situation Tuesday night.)

But Haagen, whose academic specialty is sports law, said, “one of the realities here is that there is substantial public distrust of the ability of higher education to regulate its affairs related to athletes.”

Any list of colleges that manage to balance commitment to academic ideals while also having high athletic ambitions would include Duke, a basketball powerhouse. So the lacrosse incident — even without a rape — is terrible, Haagen said. And Duke officials have said that their actions Tuesday night and earlier in forfeiting two games were based only on knowledge that underage drinking and the hiring of dancers had taken place. “Without regard to what comes in the criminal case, we’re all disappointed,” Haagen said.

Some observers have suggested that this incident shows that colleges that have long played close attention to the athletes on their “showcase teams” — most often high visibility sports like basketball and football — need to extend that scrutiny more broadly. Haagen, who played lacrosse as an undergraduate at Haverford College, has mixed feelings about such an approach.

Basketball players, he said, “are on a shorter leash” than other students. But if closer monitoring is needed, he said, what does that say about the students?

“I get really uneasy when we have special rules for athletes,” he said. “We’re not monitoring the orchestra. If these kinds of things are part of the culture, if watching for this needs to be part of the way we are operating, then we have to think real seriously about why we are doing this.”

Particularly upsetting to Haagen and others at Duke is the impact this incident is having on the university’s image in Durham. Over the last decade, Duke has invested considerable time and money in helping its home town — financially, through service programs, and through generally changing an attitude that had once been quite ivory tower. Durham has a large minority population and many people in the city think of Duke as a wealthy institution compared to their own means.

“I suspect that whatever happens in this investigation, even if the DNA testing comes back negative, people are going to think there was a cover-up. This will become a reality,” Haagen said.

And that reality of course looks different at North Carolina Central than at Duke. Most of the public attention has been about Duke, but there are also issues raised by the fact that a college student felt she needed to support herself by working for an escort service.

Roland Gaines, vice chancellor for student affairs at North Carolina Central, said that officials there don’t know who the student is. Students and educators at the university are “upset and outraged” by what happened, but are trying to “be measured and calm” and that discussions are going on about how to respond.

He said that many students at the college are indeed “financially challenged” and that he regularly receives visits from students who can’t make ends meet and are desperate for some sort of help or another job. The student told The Raleigh News & Observer that she typically took three assignments a week from the service, and that while she did not like the work, it paid well and fit her schedule.

“It’s obviously a real concern that we have a student who feels she needs to go to an escort service for additional income,” Gaines said. “It never, ever crossed my mind that we would have students do that.”

While Duke and other colleges consider the larger ramifications of what has happened, Gaines said there was one thing he would like to do: If the student comes to see him, he said, he will help her find a different job.

— Scott Jaschik

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Comments

naive

Mr. Gaines has to be incredibly naive to think that at least students don’t work for adult-entertainment companies or escort services. Where does he think the college-age girls that work for these firms come from?

And, I don’t think a couple of work-study positions at the dining hall are going to alter the financial calculus so much that these opportunity will become meaningless.

Larry, at 6:50 am EST on March 29, 2006

Now, Larry ..

Good ol’ Lar got a point about how “shocked, really shocked” the NCCU adminstrator was. Sweet Mary and Jospeph, there have been ACADEMIC books written by grad students who have worked as “adult entertainers,” a.k.a. strippers.

When you can make up to $2,000/night vs. $50/night at McDonald’s — do you need a PhD to figure why some decide to go for it?

On the other hand — as a college traditionally supportive of minorities — NCCU tries its best to promote high standards. Even when problems arise. I wish them the best — keep trying.

Bart J., at 8:30 am EST on March 29, 2006

At Dupont University ...

“Hey, heyyy! Wuz up babe?”

Up on the truck bed, standing beside the grizzled guy with the plastic penis, was a huge figure wearing only low-riding khaki shorts. Charlotte recognized him immediately. He was the gigantic lacrosse player who had confronted the Millennial Mutants on the steps of Briggs Hall. And now she knew why she recognized the guy with the plastic penis. [Another lacrosse player], he had been with the giant. “I know you!” he said. “You’re the ... the ... the ...”

He was so drunk he couldn’t remember the end of his own sentence. “Come on up here with me!” He pointed at Harrison. “Guy’s an asshole. Come on up here with me and do the shake.” He began shaking his whole body so violently, his arms hanging loose and his mouth open so that his big lower lip jiggled moronically.

Charlotte stared. He frightened her. He stopped shaking and staggered about with his immense frame stooped and his arms hanging way down.

She couldn’t bring herself to say a word. She shook her head no.

Faster than it would take to tell it, the big stoop leaped off the truck bed, over the tailgate, landed on the asphalt beside her, kneeled over, broke the fall with his hands, struggled up, stood beside her, grinning maniacally.

“Come on up babe. Time to rock!”

Her tiniest voice yet: “No.” She shook her head slowly.

“Up we go!” said Mac, and at that same moment he clamped his big hands on either side of her waist and lifted he off her feet as if she were nothing more than a vase, up toward the grizzled guy and the monstrous glans of his toy penis.

“PUT ME DOWN! TAKE YOUR HANDS OFF ME! STOP IT! STOP IT!”

From “I Am Charlotte Simmons” by Tom Wolfe

Let’s face it, these guys are the privileged. They are doing nothing more than exercising their right to change the world in ways that (1) suits their desires and (2) is consistent with some combination of their intellectual and ethical capabilities. Some pranksters burn down churches ... others rape dancers trying to make a living to support their kids and go to college.

Now we’ll have a parade of parents and friends lining up as character witnesses and expressing astonishment that our beloved Carter Hunter III would ever be involved in something as tasteless as this. I mean, let’s all go over the KA house, have a scotch on the rocks, and talk this out. And, by the way, would someone please recommend a few first-rate Durham attorneys to represent our boys.

And, Scott, any academic today who believes, “[the existence of the] stereotype of the black athlete as the source of campus problems” has had his head in the sand for as long as I can recall ... and that’s a long time. To “play the race card” in this matter is absurd ... and not befitting what one would expect from InsideHigherEd. Pick up a copy of Tom Wolfe’s book. It “explains” a lot.

http://www.famguardian.org/Subjec...yChinaMath/WhyChinaBeatsUsInMath.htm

RWH, at 8:35 am EST on March 29, 2006

Southern pride

As a southern man who’s spent most of his life around universities and college campuses, I find stories like this repulsive and disheartening. There remains, in the south, a certain male ethos and rhetoric of “honor,” “pride,” “responsibility,” and “manhood,” especially among athletes, fraternities, and military associations. They cling to the image of themselves as cultivators of traditional values and future leaders.

And yet, every day we get new stories of young men behaving crudely, dangerously, and criminally on college campuses all over the country—alone or, more often it seems, in drunken gangs. Where’s the sense of honor or responsibility here? And where are those mentor figures—the parents, coaches, older “brothers,” and team leaders—who are supposed to be instilling these values? Do they just punch out at five o’clock and shrug off any responsibility for what goes on “after hours"? Or are they aiding and abetting the bad behavior (even participating)? I don’t believe for a minute that some coaches or parents at Duke weren’t well aware of the “party house” and what went on there. How do these students have the funds, the free time, and the permissive atmosphere to engage in this kind of behavior? And how do they not have the intelligence or maturity to act responsibly (this is DUKE UNIVERSITY!)?

Whether or not a rape occurred, the fact that such a situation even existed is reprehensible. I, like most college students, attended my share of parties and imbibed my share of forbidden substances—but there was always a sense of personal and shared responsibility among my classmates and I which largely kept these kinds of incidents to a minimum. We had designated “sitters” for people who drank too much, “security” in the form of upper-classmen who were forbidden to drink for the duration of the party, an implicit agreement to keep ourselves and our friends under control, and to help those (particularly young women) who seemed in danger of being harassed or abused. And the idea of exploiting young women as “escorts” or strippers, while certainly talked about and entertained by some young men, would never have been countenanced by the majority of students at any party (especially the women or their semi-sensible boyfriends). Have we lost even this basic level of respect and responsibility?

Earl Grey, at 8:35 am EST on March 29, 2006

I agree with your comments almost 100% Earl. My question is why are we surprised women (and men) still engaging in this form of work? Larry hit the nail on the head. They get paid 10 and 100 fold more per hour of work.

Stripping and prostitution will never go away because there will always be someone with money willing to pay someone without. However, if we would value education as a society (instead of pretending to) and make it easier to obtain (financially) then perhaps we could minimize the number of college students entering the profession.

Befuddled, at 9:40 am EST on March 29, 2006

Professional Lacrosse

Ryan Powell, a volunteer assistant coach for the Syracuse lacrosse team, is one of six lacrosse players actually making a living at professional lacrosse. (http://www.dailyorange.com/media/...ourcedomain=www.dailyorange.com)With 25,000 per year being the top salary, I can see the alure of the sport and the reason so many athletes from poorer circumstances would be outraged at being excluded by the rich white guys who play the sport. Crew is even worse (intercolligiate sports began with crew in 1852). Only the coaches make any money, and Olympic goald metalists get few endorsements.

So stick to the point: Male college athletes are teenagers still a few years away from full brain integration. Male college coaches, in many cases, seemed to have stopped short of the final stage of physiological brain development. This suggests that only traditional forms of punishment are going to work—jail may be one of them.

By the way, if you check the NSSE data for HBCUs, you will find that students at these schools (students from all races at these schools) disproportionately take care of another person and work at jobs outside of school. One of the causes of this is a tradition of underfunding that goes way back and looks like it will go way forward. The same thing is in store for all minority serving schools (check the stories in this very edition) as we move to an age of accountability structured on the model of the rich, majority-serving schools.

MDG, at 11:05 am EST on March 29, 2006

Lacrosse as Southern Sport

As a proud Southerner, I have to say the problem with the Lacrosse team at Duke may have been that there were no Southerners on it. Lacrosse is an overwhelmingly Northern and Mid-Atlantic sport and a look at the Duke roster bears that out (they pulled this year’s roster from the web site, but only one player from the South shows up on any previous year’s roster).

To put this incident at the feet of Southern manhood is ridiculous. The failure of Southern manhood in this situation is one of not learning lacrosse well enough to populate the Duke team with Southerners.

The South has nothing to do with this argument and should be kept out of it.

Southern Defender, at 11:10 am EST on March 29, 2006

Why is this a lacrosse issue?

A professional stripper goes to a job and claims she was raped. The guys who hired her deny it. What’s unique about this story? What makes it intrinsically a story about college or sports or lacrosse? What makes it a story about race?

People who take off their clothes for a living, and the people who hire them, are pathetic, it is true. And we can bemoan the fact it happens. And we can bring the full force of the law when the pathetic spectacle crosses the line and becomes criminal, particularly when it moves into assault. But again, don’t other athletes get involved in this? Have no basketball players hired strippers or been accused of rape? Have not non-college students been involved in similar episodes?

(And no, I don’t play, watch, or have any interest in lacrosse.)

Publius, at 11:30 am EST on March 29, 2006

Society as a whole has gone crazy. These students see nothing wrong with their behavior because mommy & daddy have always gone to bat for them when they misbehave. College students today do not know how to accept responsibility for their behavior because their parents have always cleaned up the messes for them. A majority of students today do not realize right from wrong because parents have helped them get out of trouble. Until parents wake up and realize that their perfect child can in fact do wrong we will continue to see these problems on the rise — we are dealing with an entire generation with no limits — kids who have never been punished for anything & who think they are untouchable from the law.

m, at 1:25 pm EST on March 29, 2006

I hope you people find someone to blame such as the “liberal media” (if you are a conservative) or southern conservative drunkenness (if you are a liberal).

Larry, at 2:55 pm EST on March 29, 2006

The members of the lacrosse team are innocnt until proven guilty—correct?

Wyck, at 2:55 pm EST on March 29, 2006

“So what more can colleges do to prevent the kinds of situations that can escalate as the party did at Duke (and has happened at numerous other campuses before)?”

I do not want to let the young men involved off the hook, but there is a flip side to consider. At any strip club there are bouncers. They protect the dancers. Maybe there needs to be a regulation that requires these entertainment businesses to send escorts with their dancers. Campus leaders and athletic directors might lobby their local and state governments for such regulations. Women’s rights groups might want to look into this too.

Mike, at 3:10 pm EST on March 29, 2006

Innocent as wolves

“The members of the lacrosse team are innocent until proven guilty—correct?”

There’s nothing innocent about a bunch of rich, white turds who hire poor young black women to come and take off their clothes, listen to their drunken nastiness, and endure their molestation. Rape or no rape, they’re guilty of idiocy, misogyny, and moral bankruptcy. Justify it any way you like—"she asked for it,” “it’s legal,” “boys will be boys,” all the usual excuses of the privileged and the unprincipled—but it’ll never make them “innocent.” They should all be expelled for lack of character and integrity.

huntly, at 6:50 pm EST on March 29, 2006

The team is innocent until proven guilty. There is nothing wrong with hiring a stripper or dancer, as long as they followed the proper channels. Moreover, they are entitled to voice their own convictions. It was at a private residence, and they are upholding their right to free speech.

I think the facts need to unravel. If they in fact rapped this woman or womens, then that is highly wrong and they should face the consequences. However, we can’t rally against this team until we find out more information.

Outside Eyes, at 7:50 pm EST on March 29, 2006

Innocent as wolves...

Wolves, being animals basically following their instincts, can’t be held responsible because they like to eat rabbits. They are just as innocent as the rabbits in that respect.

It’s our responsibility to keep the wolves and the rabbits separate. (or maybe not depending on how you view our role in nature — some might call it meddling in the “natural order of things")

Adam Salter, at 9:00 pm EST on March 29, 2006

What Would Jesus Do?

Oops, wrong article. Whatever!

As always, I’m on everyone’s side ... and no one’s side.

Hey, no lack of courage here. Scott Jaschik asks, “So what more can colleges do to prevent the kinds of situations that can escalate as the party did at Duke (and has happened at numerous other campuses before)?” I’ll give that a shot.

C’mon Scott, be serious. That’s not a real question. First, Duke could just write off big-time inter-collegiate athletics and stake its reputation on its intellectual status (I mean they’ve already written off football). And they could pretend they’ve got integrity in that regard ... say, equal to that of the University of Chicago. Naw! That wouldn’t work ... I mean how would Mike Krzyzewski make a living if he couldn’t augment his meager salary by parlaying his relationship with Duke into a cushy contract with Chevrolet? And, poor guy, he can’t even keep up with Gail Goestenkors.

Then there’s Earl Grey, the Southern gentleman. He wonders how such a dastardly deed could occur at a southern university. It couldn’t have happened in “his day.”

Well, I’m born and bred in Western North Carolina – and some of our counties didn’t even secede from the Union – but I appreciate his thought that no southern gentleman would ever find himself in that situation. I mean, we always have “designated intelligent human beings” to protect our prospective rapists from themselves and to help our drunken dolts back to their frat houses. Good grief, what went wrong at that lacrosse gathering at Duke (see “Truth of the Situation” at end).

Then, there’s MDG, who is worried that this might have something to do with lacrosse players. Don’t worry, dear friend, I’ve been at parties of semi-professional frisbee players where all of the athletes under the age or 21 have been sloshed out of their minds and were putting the moves on the cheerleaders from Martin Luther King Junior High.

Of course Southern Defender thinks Earl Grey is right on the right track, but he knows that it’s not the fault of southern gentlemen, because there are absolutely no great high school lacrosse players from the South ... that is unless you consider Washington, DC and the Princeton area to be the South. Well, maybe ... we’ll have to ask F Scott Fitzgerald about that.

Of course there’s Publius – no sports fan he – who suggests the problem is, in some sense, the fault of those strippers exploiting innocent young men (who happen to be lacrosse players) by showing them their “privates” and encouraging them to slip their daddy’s ten-spots into their G-strings.

And then there’s Larry – and I do love that guy — trying to stir up trouble by suggesting that there are a bunch of us out there with all kinds of labels (described by adjectives) who are mindless dorks weighing in on this issue. He first outlined the economics of lap dancing in comparison to working a pathetic, honest shift at McDonalds; and, when that didn’t work, he resorted to the politics issue (but let’s not blame that on him ... Scott sucked everyone into interpreting this as a race/politics issue ... it sells, even at InsideHigherEd).

Frankly, I think I “know Larry well enough to write his next post for him; to wit, “What is the probability that, of 41 Duke lacrosse players at a party, 40 of them being pure white (and more than a few being Jr.’s and III’s and belonging to KA), that more than 35 are under the age of 21 and drunk out of their minds? So, according to NC-A263-Article 47a, they should be charged with blah, blah, blah.”

Okay, I’m backing off. Up to my subjective probability estimates related to this situation – and at this point I doubt that anyone could do better than I – there are more than a few of these Duke University – may I repeat that DUKE UNIVERSITY – students who are as guilty as sin. I’d love to see them pay the price of their “pleasures” ... not that I expect it to happen. I wish I knew the young women who accused the DUKE UNIVERSITY LACROSSE PLAYERS of rape. I’d provide them with whatever meager support I could muster.

In conclusion – and I hate to repeat myself – Scott, your effort to play the “race card” in this situation boarders on being outrageous. If you will consider my advice, play the “young, privileged, jerks on athletic scholarships at prestigious universities” card. And you know what? If you can demonstrate that none of these minor sports athletes are on scholarship, I could care less. My point is still right on the mark.

Now for The Truth of the Matter:

Two boys in Raleigh were playing basketball when one of them was attacked by a rabid Rottweiler.

Thinking quickly, the other boy ripped a board off a nearby fence, wedged it into the dog’s collar and twisted it, breaking the dog’s neck.

A newspaper reporter from the “Raleigh News & Observer” witnessed the incident and rushed over to interview the boy.

The reporter began entering data into his laptop, beginning with the headline: “Brave Young Heels Fan Saves Friend From Jaws Of Vicious Animal.”

“But I’m not a Heels fan,” the little hero interjected.

“Sorry,” replied the reporter. “But since we’re in North Carolina, I just assumed you were.”

Hitting the delete key, the reporter begins again, “NC State Fan Rescues Friend From Horrific Dog Attack.”

“But I’m not a State fan either,” the boy responds.

The reporter says, “I assumed everybody in this state was either for the Heels or the Wolfpack. What team do you root for?”

“I’m a Duke fan,” the boy says.

Hitting the delete key, the reporter begins again, “Arrogant Little Yankee Bastard Kills Beloved Family Pet.”

RWH, at 9:00 pm EST on March 29, 2006

Empty the colleges

As to this brilliant commentary —

“There’s nothing innocent .. They should all be expelled for lack of character ..”

fyi: if every college male involved for a night with “adult entertainment” were thrown out of college, the number of males in college would drop by 80%.

Get a grip, will ya? Let the legal system work? As opposed to North Korea? I mean, really ..

B.J., at 7:40 am EST on March 30, 2006

By the way: Not everyone at Duke is a rich kid. Many just think the education is worth the loans and scholarship applications and work study. 10 members of the lacrosse team hold jobs on campus to help pay bills; 4 are employed off campus. The stereotypes are particuarily painful coming from a site such as this.

Dave, Mr. at Chapel Hill, at 8:55 am EST on March 30, 2006

why blame the coaches?

While reading an article in Newsday this morning, I was appalled to read that parents of students who have kids planning to play lacrosse in college blame the coaches for the Duke situation. Typical parents who want their coaches, teachers etc. to parent their kids. This attitude of the “Blame Game” is all to common in our society today. It is always someone else who is a fault for my kids mistake!! When are the people who are responsible for the mistake going to take the blame? As a coach, why do to many expect us to be parent, guardian angel, psychologist,just to name a few of the hats we wear. To blame Coach Pressler is way off base!!!

bones, at 9:45 am EST on March 30, 2006

How is this about about stripping?

Ok you proud southerners committed to the sanctity of “traditional values” (are those like segregation and lynching or like homemakers and heterosexuals), I have a question for all of you. What does this have to do with the occupation of stripping and the necessity of its abolition? What does this have to do with condemning strippers and those you patronize them? Can you people really assert that somehow this problem stems from those parties and not from the bigot alpha-male violent perps who “allegedly” committed these acts (the rape)?

Of course the line between prostitution and “erotic entertaining” is blurred, I concede that. However there is a much more clear and distinct line between rape and consensual sex. The latter being crossed is the issue in this case, not the former. Lets save the morality debate for another day, today lets discuss sexual violence.

Colin California, Not the south, biggots, at 3:35 pm EST on March 30, 2006

fyi: players are NOT Southerners — they’re Yankees

“Ok you proud southerners ..”

From today’s NYTimes —

” .. The Duke lacrosse roster, which includes 26 players from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut high schools ..”

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/30...rts/30duke.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

B.J., Resident at Tar Heel Heaven, at 8:35 pm EST on March 30, 2006

Earl Gray

Are you the same man who was also surprised by the base behavior of white Southern “gentleman” in the novel “Beloved"? Surely, rape and bigotry knows no geographical boundaries, old man.

EarlGray’sNorthernConscience, To Earl Gray, at 6:40 am EDT on April 2, 2006

The Facts & Guilt

I used to believe in innocent until proven guilty. I really dont anymore & I really doubt others believe in it. Okay, raise your hand if you said it out loud when OJ was on trial? How about Michael Jackson..did you use it then? Here’s one, Barry Bonds..is he innocent considering there is no evidence he has used steroids. Was Kobe Bryant innocent?

I of course wait for the facts like everyone else, but in this Duke lacrosse case I dont even think folks are looking at the facts. However, they sure as hell are singing this “innocent until proven guilty” non-sense for the first time in their lives.

Here is what I know from police reports, victim & her father:

1) She says she was raped (usually that alone is enough but not enough) 2) An emergency room physician and nurse who performed “rape kit” declares that allegations are consistent with their findings. She was sexually assualted even sodomized. (That’s case closed with me, but let’s continue) 3) She names her attackers. Whoa...names are involved but they are not even mentioned? (something smells fishy) 4) Police (even after 2 days) find her fingernails in the bathroom along with 1 shoe and her makeup bag. Police have also discovered that her cell phone & money were stolen after finding them in house. 5) KY Jelly also found in bathroom. (So these lacrosse players need KY jelly in the bathroom to help with their abilty to shoot during a game?) Did I mention she was sodomized?6)Father tells reporter that when he first saw his daughter in the hospital he noticed her face was swollen, her jaw was bruised and she could barely walk. More than that..he looked in her eyes and knew she would deal with this for a long time.

Now..those are the facts via the victim. There are two sides right? Here are the facts on the other side:

1) Men claim nothing happened.

So..which side do you take? You still singing “innocent until proven guilty” How much “proven” does one need?

Russell, at 11:15 am EDT on April 3, 2006

I agree, Russell

Russell, Although I appreciate your need for justice (as depicted in press releases from prosecutors) and your hatred of the American system, it is very dangerous for even an “innocent” man to comment on his guilt or innocence after being accused. I could explain how seemingly exculpatory remarks have damned many a person, but I don’t think you care. Likewise, I don’t think that you really paid attend to all the OJ trial — watching it on TV doesn’t count.

A few words of note: Sexual assault nurses will always testify that injuries are “consistent” with nonconsensual sex, but there is no way that they understand the mental state of the victim or the defendant (for those reasons their testimony on these subject is inadmissible in many courts). Having KY jelly and leaving fingernails in a place where one doesn’t indicate much, except presence, which is undisputed.

Anyway, in general, I agree. It is time that we do away with our system of technicalities, and put people in jail. (I disagree with your assertion that you are innocent, however, because it is pretty clear that you did something worthy of 20 years in jail. Don’t insult my intelligence by asking for a lawyer.)

Larry, at 1:55 am EDT on April 4, 2006

The behavior of these young men even if there was no rape is repulsive and an indication of lack of respect for yourself and women at home. I have a son and he is by no means pefect and has all of the fun that he can but he has been taught respect for remales and I am proud to say that it was taught at home from the time he was a small boy. Protecting women from being harmed by ignorant men whether drunk or sober is one of his best attributes. There are not excuses. Even if she was a stripper or perhaps worse she has the right to say no like anyother women and does not have to put up with distrespectful, testosterone driven males and their disrepect and criminal behavior. It seems to me thatthe evidence falls in her favor and I don’t believe that nurses on duty and dealing with rape cases always lie about the evidence and make it look like rape. They are very intelligent professionals that have a job to do and I feel that as doctors and nurses they also have morals that they stand by and dishonesty would not be included in that category. When these boys go to trial I fell that justice will be served and they will pay the consequences and I hope they are harsh. Sexual crimes against women and children should get the worst punishment of any that I can think of. I love Duke basketball but something must be done about this type of behavior by athletes. I can’t wait to see how this turns out. Morals and values are not being taught at home and this is the root of these types of problems.Connie from MO

Connie, Teacher, at 7:50 am EDT on April 9, 2006

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