He wants an apology?
So former Duke lacrosse coach Mike Pressler returned to "the scene of the crime" (just kidding. He was actually at the Regulator) last night on his book tour. Fortunately, i have a life and couldn't be there, because reading about it in the N&O was enough to push my blood pressure up 10 points.
Let's recall the chain of events that led to Pressler's dismissal last year, shall we?
It wasn't after 1/3 of his team's players had been arrested over a period of several years for public intoxication. (And as i said over at Joe's place, i've been intoxicated in public plenty of times. I'm sure you have too. But i've never been arrested for it. Do you have any idea what it takes to get arrested for public intoxication?) It wasn't after his team's captain's hosted a party featuring sex workers and underage drinking.
No, Pressler was fired after this email, which had been sent on March 14th, and which he had been aware of for weeks, was made public as part of the police investigation.
Click on the graphic for a larger version.
I've said this for the past 15 months. If you work in corporate America, and you use your company's email system to send out something like this, you will be fired. I don't care how many Bret Easton Ellis fans you work with. No company in America is going to allow the "atmosphere of harassment" that email contributes to to exist
because it virtually guarantees a lawsuit. And a manager who is aware of an employee using the corporate email system to send things like that, and does nothing about it, is also going to be fired, and justifiably so.
Pressler knew about Ryan McFadyen's email for weeks before it became public*. That was the incident that immediately preceded his firing.
Even though i agree that University President Dick Brodhead and Athletic Director Joe Alleva mishandled the entire affair on behalf of the University (see any of my posts from last year on this. I think they waited too long to both fire Pressler and cancel the season. In addition, Brodhead's attempts to portray himself as a "Durham leader" were particularly disingenuous and probably deceitful), there should be no doubt in anyone's mind that failing to discipline one of his players who had written an email like that, on the University email system, was a firing offense.
Coach Pressler's firing needs no apology. An apology from Coach Pressler to the Durham community on behalf of his team's anti-social behavior during his tenure would, however, be welcome.
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* - see remarks in the comments for details on this strike-out.
On Thursday -- in what has been a week full of news surrounding the Duke lacrosse case -- the coach-turned-author told a crowd of supporters at the Regulator Bookshop that he still awaits one thing: an apology.
"A big part of education is when you're wrong, you admit you're wrong," Pressler said.
Let's recall the chain of events that led to Pressler's dismissal last year, shall we?
It wasn't after 1/3 of his team's players had been arrested over a period of several years for public intoxication. (And as i said over at Joe's place, i've been intoxicated in public plenty of times. I'm sure you have too. But i've never been arrested for it. Do you have any idea what it takes to get arrested for public intoxication?) It wasn't after his team's captain's hosted a party featuring sex workers and underage drinking.
No, Pressler was fired after this email, which had been sent on March 14th, and which he had been aware of for weeks, was made public as part of the police investigation.
Click on the graphic for a larger version.
I've said this for the past 15 months. If you work in corporate America, and you use your company's email system to send out something like this, you will be fired. I don't care how many Bret Easton Ellis fans you work with. No company in America is going to allow the "atmosphere of harassment" that email contributes to to exist
because it virtually guarantees a lawsuit. And a manager who is aware of an employee using the corporate email system to send things like that, and does nothing about it, is also going to be fired, and justifiably so.
Even though i agree that University President Dick Brodhead and Athletic Director Joe Alleva mishandled the entire affair on behalf of the University (see any of my posts from last year on this. I think they waited too long to both fire Pressler and cancel the season. In addition, Brodhead's attempts to portray himself as a "Durham leader" were particularly disingenuous and probably deceitful), there should be no doubt in anyone's mind that failing to discipline one of his players who had written an email like that, on the University email system, was a firing offense.
Coach Pressler's firing needs no apology. An apology from Coach Pressler to the Durham community on behalf of his team's anti-social behavior during his tenure would, however, be welcome.
=================
* - see remarks in the comments for details on this strike-out.
Labels: Duke lacrosse
Since 1949, Durhamites have slept soundly, secure in the knowledge that, in our town, erection can be depended upon. Now, thanks to the power of the internets, we can spread that security all over the world.
11 Comments:
I'm sure part of Duke's settlement with Pressler included a a provision that he apologies to the community. That's why they paid him right?
No comment on Chauncey Nartley email that threatened Pressler's daughter with rape? I'm sure you remember the strong actions Duke took against Nartley.
I wonder why the DPD has made two conflicting claims as to how they got McFadden's email? the reason they even released it seems a little mysterious considering the accuser had already identified four guys as her rapist, none of which were Mcfadden. Of course when the DA has to get elected you have to keep the pots and pans boiling with rage.
Can you substantiate your claim that Pressler knew about the email weeks before it came out? You must have a source for some inside information.
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wayne fontes, at 9:48 AM
You have a point regarding my assertion that Coach Pressler knew about McFadyen's email. My recollection of news articles from the time could be faulty.
The inference in this article from the Duke Chronicle for example, is suggestive but not conclusive that Coach Pressler knew of the email.
However, he did "submit his resignation" almost simultaneously with the public release of the email, an act which University officials described as "appropriate."
So, while the inference that he knew is, i think, logical, there is no documentation that i can put my hands on right now.
I'm striking that phrase from the entry until i can find something that shows otherwise.
Thanks for pointing that out.
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Barry, at 10:12 AM
While I think Nartley's comment was dumb, it was on par with the question some talking head asked Michael Dukakis about what if Kitty Dukakis were murdered. Unless you know something more than I do, I have a hard time seeing it as a threat.
Is there anything to this other than the one sentence, "What if Janet Lynn were next?" Because if not, I have to grammatically read that as the subjunctive tense (else the verb would have been "was", not "were"), which in English indicates a hypothetical which is not possible save in the realm of speculation. Its usage is uncommon enough that people generally don't use it accidentally, and therefore is often used to explicitly imply the non-possibility of the supposition.
All this is to say, I think that's just a canard being used to change the subject. Even knowing what we know now, I think Pressler needed firing. The Lacrosse team was still out of control, and that was his responsibility. (Though again, that does not deny the injustice of them being dragged through a rape case they were innocent of on such weak evidence.) I'm not sure what he wants an apology for, other than having his ass tossed out on the street for directing a team that for years had been an embarrassment to the University.
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Anonymous, at 3:27 PM
It wasn't after 1/3 of his team's players had been arrested over a period of several years for public intoxication. (And as i said over at Joe's place, i've been intoxicated in public plenty of times. I'm sure you have too. But i've never been arrested for it. Do you have any idea what it takes to get arrested for public intoxication?)
In Durham with Sgt. Gottlieb specifically targeting Duke students for arrest (otherwise known as profiling), it doesn't take much to get arrested.
(michael it was Bernard Shaw). If you read the Coleman report you'll find that Pressler was the ONLY person to do anything about issues with the team's behavior and the administration officials specifically given that task for ALL students did nothing. Yet only Pressler was fired. If more heads had rollled then Pressler would not have had such a justified complaint.
And you must not be a father or you would understand the reaction when a total stranger looks up your young daughter's name and uses it in a e-mail to you in the context of rape. You're not gonna sweat the subjunctive.
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Anonymous, at 9:18 PM
i don't think profiling means what you think it does.
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Barry, at 10:30 PM
Selectively enforcing the law based on demographic group membership would be called what then?
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Anonymous, at 7:13 AM
What demographic group comprises "Duke Students?"
check with Dick Brodhead before you answer?
I take it that you are not claiming the "Duke Students" are not violating the law, just that they're being singled out for it.
I think it far more likely that if "Duke Students" comprise a much higher percentage of those arrested for "public intoxication" than their percentage of the Durham population, that would represent the fact that they are publicly intoxicated in much higher numbers than the rest of the population.
And you poor little oppressed Duke student. You still haven't shown that you understand the meaning of the word "profiling." I hope you're not going to Duke law school.
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Barry, at 7:37 AM
demographic
adjective
1. of or relating to demography; "demographic surveys"
noun
1. a statistic characterizing human populations (or segments of human populations broken down by age or sex or income etc.)
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Gottleib made a practice of targeting Duke students, of all stripes, and of throwing them in jail for minor offenses when locals with more serious charges were let off. Duke students are their own demographic in Durham or do you think that demographics only relates to ethnicity?
And to use your argument, since the prison population is far more black than white, yet the general population is the reverse, are we forced to conclude that a black is far more likely to be a criminal than a white? Try out that argument over at NCCU sometime. Let me know the reaction you get.
And what's with the personal attack? It generally means you got nothing to your argument. And you have assumed things about me that are not in evidence.
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Anonymous, at 8:21 AM
Duke students - the last oppressed minority in Durham. Surely there is a fund to which we can contribute to help you overcome the effects of these prejudices and make your way in a cruel world.
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Barry, at 8:44 AM
To Michael
While you seem to attach great weight to the verb tense in Nartey's email I place much more on the fact that he knew the name of Pressler's daughter.
I highly doubt he's a lacrosse fan and just happened to know the names of Pressler's daughters. I also don't find it coincidental that he named the fifteen year old and not the eight year old.
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wayne fontes, at 2:14 PM
Man, when it starts flying, it starts flying fast. I can hardly keep up!
Wayne: I still think this whole Nartley bit amounts to zilch, but in the interest of trying to get over all these ridiculous arguments, I'm willing to be educated, as I up until now considered this e-mail of trivial importance except for those looking for something to be enraged about. Again, I see Nartley's email as a stupid emotional appeal that was basically a dumb idea. I can understand why Pressler was concerned about it. I don't see why it should merit further comment here.
I've said elsewhere that Pressler probably needed firing. You ask why no one else, but frankly, don't come crying to me about that. I'm surprised Joe Alleva still has a gig. And if you want to go one step higher, look through the archives of the Herald-Sun's letters to the editor, and you'll find a letter from me calling for Trask to resign for other reasons.
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Anonymous, at 3:05 PM
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