There has been considerable controversy over the allegation of a woman against Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston of sexual assault. The woman has now filed a civil suit against the university’s board of trustees for allegedly ignoring her claims of sexual harassment and discrimination by Winston in protection of its all-star quarterback. We recently discussed another case where a FSU player was engaged in what appears to be a hit-and-run but was given lenient treatment by local police and campus security.
Winston recently enraged many after it was disclosed that, at his Florida State student code of conduct hearing, he claimed that the woman’s moaning during sex was taken as consent. He was being cleared of sexual assault allegations by the university and also avoided criminal prosecution over the alleged rape at his off-campus apartment in December 2012.
The woman is now turning to civil action in claiming the creation of a hostile educational environment for her. The timing could not be worse for Wilsom who has declared for the upcoming NFL draft.
The case however presents difficulties for the plaintiffs because she did not inform the university until a year after the alleged attack. However, she claims that the university failed interviewed her for months and “No one on behalf of FSU, with the lone exception of (the woman’s) confidential victim advocate, ever mentioned to plaintiff that the school could bring disciplinary charges against Winston. Plaintiff’s only information was gained through brief, privileged victim-advocate conversations.”
The dual decision by both the university and prosecutor that there was not sufficient evidence of rape will present an obvious challenge. These proceedings ultimately either accepted Winston’s account or rejected the alleged victim’s account. The university also insisted that it has a documented and extensive investigation of the matter.
Oh well, perhaps another one cries wolf. These young women aren’t stupid they know these football dummies will be worth millions in a few short years. I don’t know anything about the reporting process but if she did not report it right away I’m leaning toward it didn’t happpened. Just like that poor slob Cosby, the media want us to believe that a woman who can’t keep her mouth shut for 5 minutes was silent for3-4 decades,highly unlikely.
College football and basketball are so different from pros. i’m sorry people like this guy make it look bad. Thank you, Paul C. for speaking out about grades. These kids work hard and grades are part of the deal. Bad grades, no game. People in the stands aren’t drunk and acting like animals.
Nick
Come the revolution!!!!!!!!! Well you got one out of three and there is nothing dark about it.
I think Isaac’s fantasy also involves an arsenal of weapons, some crystal meth, and some buxom blondes. I have always sensed a dark side. Now, we all have a dark side. That’s how I make my living. But, I think there’s a cauldron in our friend’s belly.
Paul
One of my fantasies is a double wide in the desert, off the grid, you never know.
Nick & Trooper
I started teaching a few years before the crash. When I started they needed teachers in the inner city schools. After the crash 2008, I was the last hired first fired as they laid a lot of teachers off due to reduced property taxes, etc.
My first gig after a stint as a substitute was a 6th grade Language Arts one. I was the fifth teacher for that class that year and it was late February. The girls were the worst. One sat on my desk and calmly told me that they had got rid of four and I would be the fifth. Some would come to school so scantily dressed that my colleagues who were more savvy would send them home. It was explained to me by the dean that the mothers would send their girls in to provoke a sexual harassment lawsuit. The school board would routinely pay $5,000, half for the mom and half for the lawyer. It was just the way things were done. It was easier than fighting it. This was my introduction into how those at the bottom of the ladder game the system. I could go on and on but you get the idea. If you were to react to the girl screaming something provocative like that, it might all be a set up for a quick buck. In my sixth grade class there were little sixth grade girls and girls that looked like woman whose body was sliding after having kids. These kids should be separated early on and dealt with accordingly, not punished but not placed in with the regular kind. Perversity should not come into one’s life until much later. Anyway, I finished the year and got hired again and again until the crash and us newbies got laid off. You should have seen the looks of desperation on the faces of the teachers with ten and fifteen years experience in better places as they previewed their next year’s assignment.
Trooper, Triage is a perfect word. I would first pick out the kids who didn’t need a teacher. For them, I would say, “Don’t screw them up, “First do no harm.” I would then pick out the trouble and let them know I was no one to screw w/. Kids knew I worked in Leavenworth, was an active :PI, and was not one to suffer fools or foolishness. I’m not bragging, that’s just the way it was. Other teachers did not understand it, but most of them were clueless union rats. Where I focused my attention was the kids who could go either way, particularly when I taught middle school. We put our worst teachers in middle school. That’s because of the union. You get paid the same. And, middle school is the hardest. So, the worst teachers get sent there. We need merit pay and we need to put the BEST teachers in middle schools.
My buddy is involved in the discipline department for the Board of Ed.
He gave me a recent example that I would ask your opinion on.My It seems that the current fad is for young girls to screech at people “suck my dick.” Amazing right.
Well this young lady at Boys and Girls had a dispute with her teacher. She stood up…pulled down her pants….and had a strap on. She screamed “Suck my Dick.”
So he said to me…..that’s what….a one day suspension?
Trooperyork
Triage is right. It wasn’t my main career. I only did it for a few years. The people that deserve the credit and input are those that spend an entire career doing it. My niece is a UCLA graduate, literature, belonged to all the clubs. She is in her second year of teach for America at one of the worst schools in New Jersey. Now that is triage.
issac – my secondary teaching career was in what is now known as ‘alternative’ schools. These are schools for students who have not succeeded for some reason or another in the regular system. It is both rewarding and life-draining. You can go home every day knowing you made a difference, but exhausted.
And, if you get to Arizona, let me know, I am always available for coffee.
I think I can sum up your basic point in one word.
Triage.
Issac I have a new found respect for you because of the time you put in teaching in the inner city. What you did is a vital job and under appreciated. You description is both reasoned and rings so very true.
One of my best friends was the long term dean at a famous high school in Bed Stuy. He tells much the same story as you.
We will never agree on solutions but I respect your knowledge and experience in this area. I think many of these students were lucky to have you as a teacher.
Paul and Nick
As much as it would be best for us not to meet in a bar somewhere, we are in the same pamphlet here, perhaps even on some of the same pages.
I taught in the inner city/flack jacket schools for a few years and experienced two areas where the system is lacking. Firstly the desire of Americans for government at many levels brings with it a top heavy and dysfunctional administrative morass. The other countries with which I am familiar: Canada, Norway, France, Great Britain , all of which are in the top third while the US occupies a top place in the bottom third world wide, have at least one less level of administration, (Canada). The rest are centralized and more efficient, relevant, and focus more on the student than politics. In all of these other countries the teachers are better paid, more respected, better trained, and more empowered to develop the educational programs. I could go on but most of this is common knowledge. The second and perhaps greatest problem is that when an idiot states simply, “No child left behind” and then walks away, “mission accomplished”, the lower levels bring down the upper and middle levels of performance. The biggest problem I experienced in my years of teaching was the two or three really bad apples who had been shuffled along, not being permitted to be left behind, that used up most of the valuable time in over crowded classrooms. The highest level students were easy to deal with. They understood and looked over the chaos. The problem lay with those who made up the middle half. They easily drifted to the chaos and regardless of my success in developing and maintaining discipline, it, nevertheless took up far too much time.
The head of the Finnish education system presented a theory in the Times recently that focused on, what he thought was problem #1. The kids that come from poor or disadvantaged, or single parent, or whatever, homes drag down the middle. Of course there are incredible success stories of kids rising above all that. He stated that even if a group of American teachers were to go to Finland and learn from one of the world’s most successful systems, when they returned back into the US system, they would be little if at all ahead. He also stated that if a group of Finnish teachers were to teach in the US, they would have almost as much of a hard time. If I could get parents of four kids to come to an open house, I considered myself lucky. The parents were and continue to be the biggest problem. Having found themselves at a loss in society their ego maintains for their kids that this is alright.
I used athletics and ‘recess’ as a reward, not a right. That worked quite well. Kids understand the performance reward formula before anything else.
The dismal level of public education in this country has many reasons. Athletics is down on the list. It’s on the list. I think overall athletics is a net positive, but there are certainly negatives as well. What I have seen in my lifetime is the negative influence of parents. With that intrusiveness came specialization, wherein parents limiting their child to one sport in order to obtain the Holy Grail, an athletic scholarship. I coached baseball @ the high school level. I coached kids who went on to play Division 1, 2 and 3, getting full rides. I never coached a kid w/ nearly the talent to play MLB. Parents, and 99% of people HAVE NO IDEA just how good you have to be to be an MLB player. And, the vast majority of parents are clueless how good you have to be to get a Division 1 scholarship. I had a parent who thought his son would be playing for LSU. When he was a senior, I had a freshman who beat the kid out as starting catcher. The parents went ballistic, but to anyone who observed, the freshman was exponentially better. Indeed, the freshman went on to play Division 1[left handed hitting catcher..gold!] and the other kid never even got a jr. college offer.
Back to the specialization. It ROBS kids of valuable lessons. I was an All-Star baseball player, pitcher and 3rd baseman. I was just a fair to good football player. I started OT and played special teams. I didn’t really like football but I learned valuable lessons. It was good to play and not be an All-Star. But, I loved basketball and was not even good enough to play in high school. Well, I didn’t care, I played CYO. I learned much from the struggle, the playing just for fun. Ironically, a severe shoulder injury and then a more serious eye injury playing football ended my baseball career. That too, was a valuable lesson. No pity party, people have MUCH more serious setbacks. You just let it go and move forward.
Paul
You must understand that what we have access to comes from the extremes. Not all athletes need tutoring. In fact, from my experience in mixing athletics and academics and raising a child to do the same, the attitudes nurtured in sports more often than not assist the student in academics. At one end of the spectrum there are the 4.0GPA/lettered in four sports results. At the other are those that would not have made it if it were not for a lot of shoehorning. It comes with the territory. The territory is a country with perhaps the greatest focus on sports when compared to the rest of the world. This is a young country and I can’t help but think about Greece and Rome and the Olympic Games and the Coliseum.
I taught school, elementary, middle, and high school. The extremes surface early on when kids disregard academics because they think they will get to and through college on a football scholarship on their way to the big time. This is unique to the US. It’s a double edged sword. One has to stop and think, however, when one reflects on the dismal level of public education in this country. The US is perhaps still the country where the streets are paved with gold and any young man or woman can make it to the big time.
issac – there is a minimum SAT score that students must make to get full-ride scholarships at a Top Five school. Not everyone qualifies for the brass ring. That is why some start in the community colleges and then move to the ‘bigs.’ And you are right, some student-athletes are more athlete during the semester of their sport and then make it up during the summer. They are required to complete 24 semester hours of academic work each academic year before they are eligible to play the next year. That is strictly monitored.
If I’m going to balloon up to 350 like OJ, Rigatoni w/ marinara sauce and spicy Italian sausage is my comfort food of choice.
Nick – the heart burn would kill me 😉 Oreos is a suicide to die for. 🙂