The Duke situation

A while ago, Tony from N.C. emailed me and asked me my opinion on the Duke rape case. He was interested in an out-of-town opinion. I've been sitting on this for a while because to be honest, I just didn't know what to think besides "what a bunch of dumb, cocky jerks." This assessment was primarily based on the idiot player who attacked some guys in Georgetown in November, and is now on trial for violating the terms of his agreement. His defense? He says HE was the one who was attacked. So much for the best defense being a good offense- that's one of the stupider defenses I've heard. But I digress.

Anyway, Tony had a few questions:

1. Do you think Duke would take the same actions if the allegations involved their basketball program? Or even their inept football program? In other words revenue producing teams.

Can you imagine if this affected the can-do-no-wrong basketball team? For one thing, I doubt it would have come out in the media. They would have paid everyone off. All right, maybe that's going too far, but I doubt it would have reached this level. For one, I think the university would have done a more thorough investigation instead of knee-jerk reacting to public outrage (i.e. quickly canceling the rest of the season). Sadly, I think the situation would have been worse instead of better if it hit a revenue-producing team.

2. What if it turns out that the ‘false accuser’ lied, made the whole thing up….what actions should the school take then?

a. Should they re-instate the coach?
b. Allow the kids who were expelled to return?
c. Apologize publicly?

One thing, Tony- we don't know that she's a false accuser for sure yet. The situation sure looks weird though.
That being said, should they reinstate the coach or allow the expelled kids to return? I don't know. There would still be a stigma with the old crew, even if it was proven that they didn't do anything. It would probably be best for everyone involved if they got a new start somewhere else and reinvigorated the program.
The school should apologize publicly if the accuser was proven to have lied, but I doubt that would happen. That's a pretty big pill to swallow, especially for a prestigious university like Duke.

3. Lastly, what should happen to the ‘false accuser’?

That's the toughest question of all. I really don't have a good answer for that. But to be honest, I don't think that even if the accuser is proven to have made up the allegations, it's ruined these kids' lives. They'll do just fine (like the guy who has the $14,000 Wall Street internship this summer.) If anything, it's shed some light on an athletic situation that's all too common in universities and one that should be addressed- but is frequently overlooked until it becomes a serious problem. Take the player who's busy boozing it up and attacking people on the street- maybe he should take this chance to deal with his anger management issues instead of blaming the victims. But no. Instead, that guy is putting on the angel act and the players' families are making comments like "Does he look like a mean kid?" and "These kids are not capable of this." I understand where they're coming from- they're in an awkward position and naturally want to defend their kids, but it's got to be difficult. They come off sounding naive.

What's the answer? Who knows? Overall, I don't think it was handled well by anyone, especially if the allegations are true. Something happened that night, and we still don't know what it was. Unfortunately, I doubt we'll ever really know the truth.

Thanks for writing, Tony- hope that answered your questions!