Opinion from the Coach’s Office: Failing The Duty of Care in College Sports

This past weekend, a Duke volleyball student-athlete was viciously, racially abused during a match at BYU in Provo, Utah. According to BYU’s administration, a man (men? Duke’s players and coaches claim there was more than one heckler, but only one was identified) sitting in the BYU student section “targeted and racially heckled [Duke’s lone Black starter, Rachel Richardson] throughout the entirety of the match.” Threats to physically assault her were serious enough that a police officer was stationed on the Duke bench. You can read one account here or watch this brief report.

Miss Richardson handled a situation that no student should ever face with poise and determination. I greatly admire her, but the fact remains she NEVER should have been put in that position. The game officials, Duke and BYU coaches, student-athletes, administrators, and 5,700 fans completely failed to meet their duty of care obligations here. We need to demand a higher standard from federally funded, allegedly elite, educational institutions!

In the first place, you have to ask what on EARTH the referees, coaches, and administrators were thinking of continuing to play the match with racial slurs clearly audible. How does Duke stay on the floor? How do the officials not stop the match and eject the abusers? How do BYU students sharing a fan section with these people continue to watch the match, silently complicit with repeated vitriol hurled at college students?

I believe most of the coverage of this has really missed the point. These coaches would proudly talk about how the volleyball court is their classroom. As coaches, don’t they have a duty of care to prevent students from being abused in “their classroom?” The officials, presumably provided through the West Coast Conference, also have only one job – and completely failed. You have to wonder if the WCC is willing to continue sending women to compete on a campus that has a proven inability to maintain even the most minimum standards of safety for student-athletes.

Also, the man/men who kept abusing Miss Richardson were acting in close proximity and in full view of the entire crowd of 5700 fans. It is important to note that unlike Miss Richardson and any minority student-athletes who compete in the facility from this point forward, they felt COMPLETELY safe to scream the n-word repeatedly, racially abuse a student, and physically threaten her. They were not concerned that their peers, fellow fans, university administrators, or police might feel their behavior was inappropriate or intervene, and they were clearly correct. BYU’s mealy-mouthed apology and flaccid investigation that completely ignores their own honor code notwithstanding (read it here)

The NCAA has shown it can investigate and hold colleges accountable when they fail to protect student-athletes and other young people on their campuses. This incident cries out for sanctions, clearly delineated lines of responsibility and the implementation of concrete policy changes. It is long past time to do a better job shielding female student-athletes from racial and gender-based harassment on the field and all student-athletes from being targeted while they compete and represent their institutions with honor and dignity.

By: Dave Morris, College Counselor & CEO, College Athletic Advisor, dave@collegeathleticadvisor.com or phone: (719) 248-7994. Biography here

Featured image via @DukeVB on Twitter

_

GIRLS SOCCER NETWORK: YOUR SOURCE FOR GIRLS SOCCER NEWS