by Rebecca Tescher Robison
In this era of sensitivity to profiling, it’s hard to believe the local daily newspaper tagged the two Huntley Project expelled students accused of assault as “athletes” and “football players.”
That profiling now unfairly dumps the incident onto the championship football team and the school’s football program.
What the article fails to mention is that neither of the two students expelled for sexual assault played in the championship games, neither were starting players, both were immediately suspended and subsequently expelled forever.
The alleged incident was a serious violation of school policy and the school administration and board took immediate action.
One wonders if these students are, or were, band or drama club members, if that information would have been included in the daily newspaper’s story.
Or rather, in this era of Tiger Woods’ and other famous athletes’ transgressions, it’s natural to have athletes take a rap.
But the successful Huntley Project football team members do not deserve this. They are indicted merely by having their team associated with the story.
They are high school football players — not star athletes who have sold their good name for pricey endorsements.
This newspaper has followed this incident from the inception and has not printed any of the rumors.
Repeatedly, the school administration and sheriff’s department have declined comment to protect the victim and even the alleged perpetrators.
The entire incident — a school board, administration and athletic department’s worst nightmare — appears to have been handled as professionally as it could have been.
With the exception of the unfortunate profiling.