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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsN.C. School Lets Student Facing Sexual Assault Charges Play Football, Suspends Female Athletes Who P
N.C. School Lets Student Facing Sexual Assault Charges Play Football, Suspends Female Athletes Who ProtestedLink to tweet
A North Carolina high school is under fire for suspending female athletes who participated in a student-led protest over the district letting a male student play football while facing sexual assault accusations.
On Oct. 1, Olympic High students protested for the safety of females in the school after a male student charged with a sexual felony was allowed to continue playing on the school's football team.
"If you get your phone taken in class, you're benched, but yet he can be under investigation for a sexual crime and still get to play on Friday, that is ridiculous," Sereniti Simpson, one of the students who helped organize the walk-out told WCNC.
Multiple volleyball players who participated in the walk-out, including Simpson, were punished with a one-game suspension, she told WJZY.
..........................
WTF!
mahatmakanejeeves
(57,420 posts)NORTH CAROLINA NEWS
by: Derek Dellinger
Posted: Oct 7, 2021 / 06:13 AM EDT / Updated: Oct 7, 2021 / 06:30 AM EDT
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (FOX 46 CHARLOTTE) Questions still surround a decision from Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools to allow a student to play football, despite facing charges related to a reported sexual assault case and wearing an ankle monitor.
On Friday, the district said it, did not make the right call, without explicitly referring to the incident or the student in question.
However, the decision came after protests and a walkout took place earlier that day by students, who highlighted sexual assault cases, including one incident that happened in September at the school.
Students who took part in the protest now say they are being punished for the protests, and the community reaction is intensifying.
Its almost like theyre trying to silence this group of youth that would be instrumental in changing things going forward, said Melissa McAtee, a mentor to Olympic High students. McAtee said one of the students she mentors is a volleyball player who was suspended from a game for taking part in the walkout.
Students that were inside were not allowed out, said McAtee. The students that were outside were not allowed back in. There were some students that passed food to those outside, and they received an in-school suspension.
{snip}
sheshe2
(83,746 posts)BlancheSplanchnik
(20,219 posts)Im glad the community is reacting. Put on the pressure!!
Ka-Dinh Oy
(11,686 posts)Well, if it is rape of a female only.
Karma13612
(4,552 posts)RIGHT HERE is why i am so completely defeated by everything going on right now.
NOTHING MAKES SENSE ANYMORE.
NOTHING!
malaise
(268,952 posts)on steroids
lindysalsagal
(20,679 posts)And if there are any female board members, they cow-tow.
JanMichael
(24,885 posts)Elyse C. Dashew, Chairperson, At-Large
Phone:
704-659-6994 Fax:
980-343-7128 Email:
elysec.dashew
Thelma Byers-Bailey, Vice-Chairperson, District 2
Phone:
980-272-1943 Fax:
980-343-7128 Email:
thelmab.bailey
Jennifer De La Jara, Member, At-Large
Phone:
980-343-6207 Fax:
980-343-7128 Email:
jennifer1.delajara
Lenora Sanders Shipp, Member, At-Large
Phone:
980-343-6207 Fax:
980-343-7128 Email:
l1.sanders-shipp
Rhonda Cheek, Member, District 1
Phone:
980-231-1465 Fax:
980-343-7128 Email:
rhonda.lennon
Dr. Ruby M. Jones, Member, District 3
Phone:
704-579-1763 Fax:
980-343-7128 Email:
rubym.jones
Carol Sawyer, Member, District 4
Phone:
980-292-0554 Fax:
980-343-7128 Email:
carole.sawyer
Margaret Marshall, Member, District 5
Phone:
704-251-4981 Fax:
980-343-7128 Email:
margarets.marshall
Sean Strain, Member, District 6
Phone:
980-343-5139 Fax:
980-343-7128 Email:
seanc.strain
Breana Fowler, Student Advisor, At-Large
Phone:
Fax:
Email:
N/A
mjvpi
(1,388 posts)Thank you for looking into this and posting all of that information. My guess is that none of this really made it out of the one high school until the young women called BS. A new principals job will be opening up soon, I would venture to guess.
niyad
(113,275 posts)lindysalsagal
(20,679 posts)MagickMuffin
(15,936 posts)I guess Mr.Rapey boy was not a bench warmer. Must help the school win at ALL costs. We need our heroic football player, so he'll he able to rape again and again and again AND SCORE!
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)BlancheSplanchnik
(20,219 posts)LiberalFighter
(50,897 posts)They don't really have anything to do with education.
SouthBayDem
(32,019 posts)whose parents won't be home till sunset. After school sports provide structure and teach valuable organizational/life skills especially to kids who'd otherwise turn to gangs or other illicit activity.
niyad
(113,275 posts)you can get away with anything. O. J. Simpson. Brock Turner. The list is endless. And I find it disgusting that sports programs are immune to budget cuts, when art and music are the first things cut.
LiberalFighter
(50,897 posts)Local news here spend way too much time on local sports.
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)Jimbo S
(2,958 posts)niyad
(113,275 posts)'cause those of us on the cross country and swim teams were given the prima donna treatment.
niyad
(113,275 posts)Jedi Guy
(3,185 posts)My high school's football team was legendarily awful, to the point that in my entire high school career they never won a single game. I was one of the kids in the AP US history class, and up to my senior year, no one had passed the national exam. I was leaving school late one day and I overheard the principal and the AP history teacher talking in her classroom. He was going on about how no student had passed the exam, so the class should be cut since it wasn't producing results. There was a moment of silence, and then Mrs. Green-Aguirre replied sweetly, "Well, the football team hasn't won a game in four years. Are we going to cut the football program, too?" The principal then stormed out of the classroom, his face so purple he looked like a grape perched atop a suit.
It's worth noting, of course, that the principal's son was the quarterback and that this was in the Deep South, where football is akin to religion. Alas, none of us in my class passed the AP history test. I came very close, as did several others. But even 23 years later, I still get a chuckle out of my teacher putting the principal in his place.
niyad
(113,275 posts)imagine that principal choking in shock at such a heretical idea. Many blessings to your AP instructor.
Thank you for sharing that delightful memory.
LiberalFighter
(50,897 posts)to be upstanding citizens conveying the morals the players need.
Blue_Adept
(6,399 posts)High School Coach Statistics and Facts in the US
There are over 46,551 high school coaches currently employed in the United States. 33.2% of all high school coaches are women, while only 63.5% are men. The average age of an employed high school coach is 34 years old.
https://www.zippia.com/high-school-coach-jobs/demographics/#:~:text=High%20School%20Coach%20Statistics%20and%20Facts%20in%20the%20US&text=There%20are%20over%2046%2C551%20high,coach%20is%2034%20years%20old.
obamanut2012
(26,068 posts)nothing wrong with intramural sports, which would not make a student athlete (almost always male) a god who is basically untouchable, and would also not take needed resources from academics.
treestar
(82,383 posts)Organized sports in another setting.
paleotn
(17,911 posts)Just south of the airport. I know the area.
Aussie105
(5,383 posts)Don't they understand how the world works?
Boys will be boys . . .and girls shouldn't complain.
Do I need this? Really?
Grokenstein
(5,722 posts)People actually bet on that shit, so...
Moebym
(989 posts)Our high school principal never greeted the achievements of the academics-oriented clubs with as much enthusiasm as she did the achievements of our athletics teams.
This was East Tennessee, though.
twodogsbarking
(9,739 posts)crickets
(25,963 posts)One boy was allowed to play football. Six girls were benched from a volleyball game. Easy math.
Ford_Prefect
(7,894 posts)They're only kids after all, how bad could it be?
JanMichael
(24,885 posts)"If there ever was one" is saved for Texas, Florida, Alabama and Georgia. HS football is their Sacred Cow.
NC is basketball heavy though.
BlancheSplanchnik
(20,219 posts)So fucking sick of it!
sheshe2
(83,746 posts)BlancheSplanchnik
(20,219 posts)Celerity
(43,333 posts)Olympic High students line both sides of Sandy Porter Road in protest outside the school on Oct. 1, 2021 in Charlotte. On Sept. 13, a 15-year-old student was charged with sexual assault of a female student. Another student, a football player, had been accused of assault and told to wear an ankle monitor. The athlete played in a recent football game wearing the monitor. JEFF SINER JSINER@CHARLOTTEOBSERVER.COM
BY SERENITI SIMPSON
OCTOBER 08, 2021
Moving, inspirational, monumental. These words were used to describe a protest Oct. 1 on the Olympic High School campus. It occurred in front of the high school and the dozens of students who participated were demanding a safer environment, not only for females on Olympics campus, but for any female on any Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools campus. It was planned as a peaceful protest. I should know, I helped plan it.
Sexual assault is something I have always been passionate about because it affects so many young females and males across the world daily. Sexual assault is always thrown on the back burner and the voices of victims are silenced. No more, no more letting people silence our voices, we will be heard. The protest at Olympic was not only to demand a safer environment on campus, but to let the women whose voices were ripped from them know that we hear them and we stand with you and will no longer let anyone silence your voice. Every day females walk around in fear of what could happen to them in this crazy world. Why do we have to feel that same fear on our campus as well?
Last week, several Olympic volleyball players were benched due to participating in the Oct. 1 protest. I was one of them. Let me paint this picture for you: After being under criminal investigation for a sexual assault crime, an Olympic football player was able to play in a football game, but the young women who were just pleading to feel safe on campus got punished. No one is saying the player is guilty or innocent, but when something like getting your phone taken away in class can get you benched, why should someone under criminal investigation get to play? After it was announced that the volleyball players would be punished for protesting, I handed in my jersey because I refuse to play for a team or school that punishes its athletes for taking a stand. The fact that the school will punish those who speak out could make others who want to speak out afraid to do so.
Honestly, I think that is the goal if you can keep these victims voices silenced you dont have to deal with it and then once again sexual assault will be thrown on the back burner. Statements from Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools were released essentially saying that the protest was an infringement of safety. I feel as though having people on campus who harm the female students is a bigger infringement of safety. The administration at Olympic also felt another problem with the protest was that it interrupted a school day. Im sorry that one 7-hour school day was interrupted, but sexual assault victims lives are affected forever.
Yes, words like moving, inspirational and monumental were used to describe the amazing, peaceful protest at Olympic. To see so many people fighting for a cause that I hold deep to my heart was so touching. The fight is not over. We want sexual assault to be talked about more in schools. We want the administrations to listen. We need sexual assault taken more seriously and need precautions put in place to keep females safe on campus. We ask for the support of the community because we are not finished. Our voices will be heard. This is only the beginning to a new and safer future.
Sereniti Simpson is a 16-year-old junior enrolled in the CMS early college program. Her home school is Olympic High School.
niyad
(113,275 posts)young woman.
Would you consider cross-posting this in Women's Rights And Issues? Thanks in advance.
niyad
(113,275 posts)F'n HELL is wrong with those in charge there???? F'n football is more important than the safety of half the student body??? Patriarchy on steroids it is.
Would you consider cross-posting this in Women's Rights And Issues?. Thanks in advance.
sheshe2
(83,746 posts)The board that made the decission was...predominately women. Go figure that one out.
niyad
(113,275 posts)shortly.
Dawson Leery
(19,348 posts)This all too common episode is a strong reason in favor of school choice.
gldstwmn
(4,575 posts)If not, that's a terrible message to send with this article.
niyad
(113,275 posts)gldstwmn
(4,575 posts)of color wearing an ankle monitor. Why not post a photo of a white leg with an ankle monitor on it?
niyad
(113,275 posts)sheshe2
(83,746 posts)However if you look them up, looks pretty authentic to me.
Not sure why you think it is fake or what the terrible message is. He was charged with a felony.
A high school football player in NC charged with felony attempted second-degree rape, second-degree kidnapping & sexual battery was allowed to play. But the female student athletes who protested in the interest of their safety, were suspended
gldstwmn
(4,575 posts)It's a stock photo meaning it is not the accused rapist. What do you think the rapist looks like by looking at that photo? Is that what your garden variety rapist looks like?
sheshe2
(83,746 posts)I agree with you. Thanks for pointing it out.
Response to gldstwmn (Reply #32)
sl8 This message was self-deleted by its author.
radicalleft
(478 posts)What if this is a situation where two teenage kids hooked up and a parent found out about it and ran to the police? Perhaps there is more to the story than we know. How many times has this scenario taken place. Perhaps this is an interracial situation as well...we all know how injustice has been perpetrated in these circumstances.
Now as far as the girls protesting? Yeah that was a bad look on the schools part.
MineralMan
(146,288 posts)That often comes with some sort of penalty, but, the penalty draws even more attention to the reason for the civil disobedience, and more clearly points out the discrepancy. So, the girls got suspended, which became part of the story and draws attention to the kid who is under investigation for sexual assault.
This is a less on how and why civil disobedience can be a powerful thing. The punishment is part of the action. If there are no consequences, it can be argued that the disobedience made no impact.
Bravi to all those girls!
SYFROYH
(34,169 posts)Charges mean a certain level of legal burden has been met and more than a mere accusation.
For shame.
treestar
(82,383 posts)Only allies when we want it to. This thread is scary. You are the only one who even considered a legal standard. While not playing football is not jail, it still seems mere accusations should be enough.
The safety issue could not be a factor at a football game.
Ilsa
(61,694 posts)Step 3: Ask the band and cheer squad not to attend. Ask the rivals to not attend.
Step 4: Ask the other players to stay home, to prevent fielding a team. (No game means no money from tickets and concessions.)
Step 4: The teen that does the invocation should sarcastically ask God to go easy on the accused rapist (name him) and not let the administration's support of him get in the way of a good time on a Friday night.
Jimbo S
(2,958 posts)Basketball player was allowed to continue playing, citing "innocent until proven guilty". I think it was armed robbery. He was booed by the fans during the state tournament.
As for the females protesting, the punishment was an over reach. If this was due to some school conduct book, then it may be time to review the code of conduct.