Johnson, and now Kemp, hung out to dry

[grizfromhel]

Today's Wall Street Journal editorial page has an interesting article comparing the two most notorious college sports "incidents" in the last ten years, namely Penn State and the matter of the three accused white boys from the Duke lacrosse team. Recall that at Duke there was an immediate "rush to judgment" and even, in that citadel of liberalism, an academic witch hunt in which 88 faculty members of the university signed a published newspaper ad (paid by the university, incidentally) denouncing the lacrosse players and expressing support and sympathy for the supposed victim. A month later the case had fallen apart and the untruthfulness of the allegations were exposed: a big,flat out lie.

I do not mean to suggest or express an opinion about whether JJ or his accuser is telling the truth----I'll leave that to an impartial panel, wherever that may be found. But the "rush to judgment" atmosphere of the administration and certain parts of the faculty at UM --- ready to form a judgment and condemn on sparse and second-hand information--- is very similar to the affair at Duke. And, as I recall, the lacrosse players ended up with a substantial settlement from the college. At least it wasn't the taxpayer's money (yours and mine) as JJ's could be.

 

[br fan]

All of us want a clean program, and none of us wants to sweep what any of the players have done under the rug. A problem I see though is some people do not want to hold UM to that same standard. Using JJ's situation as an example, some people are willing to overlook UM's own screw-ups if they already have a preconceived notion of his guilt. IMO our preconceived notions of someone's guilt or innocence should not even play into what we expect of UM; we should expect them to do the right thing each and every time. Gerald Kemp would not be an issue if UM had handled it appropriately. JJ would not be an issue if UM had handled it appropriately. To be honest I hope they both play, but I really could care less about them if UM kicks both of them off the team if they do it in the right way.