Here is a copy of the letter I received from a mother of the one of the Duke lacrosse players. She raises an excellent point about the dangers of painting with a broad brush...

I'm sure you are aware of the cruelty and profound harm of discrimination against groups of people. My son is a student-athlete on the Duke lacrosse team. He is a young man honored for his integrity, academics and sportsmanship. He has worked hard since he was five years old to excel in a sport he loves. It is very difficult to put that much time into a sport and maintain  good grades and an extensive record of community service. Every boy on this team had received similar honors or they would not have been recruited and then accepted into Duke University. If you are going to portray  these student-athletes as "out of control," "vile" characters because of misdemeanor records, you should delve into the arrest records of all Duke athletes and of all Duke students. You should report how many noise violations, etc., non lacrosse players have had in the same neighborhood.

You are discriminating against one group of people, not because of fact, but because of innuendo. You are comparing them to fictional characters in a novel and are writing harmful allegations about boys whom you know nothing about.

These boys have faces and families. They are individuals who pride themselves on their achievements on and off the field. To lump them as one and to grossly characterize them without any proof and fact is slander. You should be "dumped."

04/04/06 at 13:55
There would be no reason to portray the lacrosse team in any way negatively, if those who were not involved in the incident, would simply tell what they know of it, rather than (as it seems) covering up for their teammates.

The article in today's paper about the NCCU rally to support the victims of the incident, raises a good point: Had an NCCU team gang-raped a couple of Duke girls, they would already be in jail.

Money, race and privilege are the key components in this outrageous case - the fact that the investigation has not come to any conclusions yet, more than a week out from the incident, shows that power and influence is the thing keeping investigators away from the brutes who committed this inhuman behavior.

Period.

04/04/06 at 17:27
Sigh....the accused have 5th amendment rights, and any criminal attorney worth his or her salt will enforce them. The expectation that they would "come forward" and tell what they know flies in the face of advice from any decent attorney. Whether the accused are black, white, yellow, red, purple or blue, they all have the same 5th amendment protection rights. They are not aiding and abetting by claiming their rights.

The prosecutor can file charges and depose the entire time, but so far he hasn't done it. Let the DNA results come out before anyone makes any sweeping judgments.

Bringing up the MIP and Alcohol in Public charges is a red herring. I would venture to say the average college student body has MIP or similar charges brought against 1/3 of its members over the 4-5 years they are in college. Thinking of my own dorm floor, it was probably closer to 40% (and I fell into that category, a good kid from the suburbs who made a stupid mistake when she was 19 years old).

Hiring strippers is not illegal - but if I was the girlfriend of one of the players I'd be pissed. Raping someone is awful, horrible, and could land the rapist in jail for 16-20 years. Not to be taken lightly at all. But accused rapists still have 5th amendment rights.

Everyone wants people to come forward...until their own loved one needs the protection of the 5th amendment to get a fair trial.

Let the legal process play out...

04/04/06 at 20:22
Someone, ANYONE show me another example where 3 men have committed a crime and 43 other men were implicated and ccnvicted in the Media.

4 Mississipi State Football players at a Campus party beat up a Cop pretty bad and tried to cover it up. It hardly received any press. Most of the team was at the Party, but somehow they were not all treated like criminals - Gulit by association. Is anyone Surprised?

The alleged victim at Duke identified 3 men. She identified the 3 alleged assailants, so WHY WERE THE OTHER 43 MEN (including 16 white players that didn't even attend the party or enter that premises on that day)
subjected to DNA tests and public scrutiny absent Charges?

If this had to be done to 46 black players, HBO would be doing a special on it. The DURHAM 46 starring Denzel Washington and Danny Glover as the coach.
The Midnight vigils would be supporting the team. The other 43 players would be seen as courageous for standing up to a R@cist DA and a bigoted system. They would be playing games and wearing a 43 patch on their Jerseys. The Press treatment of Nifong would make Kenneth Starr whince.

Sad, but true.

For the record, if the 3 guys are Guility, they should rot in Jail - throw away the key. They are not fit for our society, or any other.

Thanks for Forum. Seems like a Fair Forum

04/05/06 at 11:35
Ms. Sheehan:

Why were my comments supportive of the Duke lacrosse Mom removed from your blog?

I deserve an explanation and so do your readers.

Are they going to be put back up? I'm told you are supposed to do that.

BTW - While there is much in John's comment above with which I agree, I want you and readers to know I'm not that John.

It's a common name so I usually make sure at blogs that I'm identified as www.johnincarolina.com

Thank you.

John
www.johnincarolina.com

04/05/06 at 13:07
The book "Profiles in Courage" doesn't include a chapter about men refusing to speak out about behavior that is unfit for a university student, an NCAA athlete, and a honorable person in general. All evidence points to the fact that a woman was injured at a Duke Lacrosse party. Now there are 11 lawyers defending the silent players; saying its a hoax; verbally attacking the vistim; attacking the prosecutors -- it's just great what money can buy. My daughter is a female NCAA ACC athlete. It is hard for me to imagine that I would condone her silence in a situation like this. Yes, the players have families that are affected, but so does the woman involved. And what kind of family doesn't advocate for truthtelling, particularly if there is nothing so terrible to say?

04/05/06 at 18:21
After I read the story of the E-Mail from one of the Players, I am convinced that the Whole Duke Team should be punnished. I am glad to see the Lax season has been canceled. Next years season should be played without the ability to play in the post season. I am sure that more than half the team is looking to transfer and abandon a sinking ship, LAX does not have a one year suspension for transfers so they can be playing some where else next year. School Spirt. Hopefully they are all tagged and no school will have anything to do with them. They have all tarnashed a good school and a great sport.
What happened on March 14 is one of the most digusting things I have come across in a long time. The rape is terrible, The racism is terrible, the covering up is terrible, the E-Mail Players Racist E-Mail that night was terrible, the drinking in the bar a few days later was terrible. And according to the LAX players mom, these are all boys of integrity.
To the LAX players mom, you are part of the problem. Ignore what happened and plead about how your son has worked so hard. No kid loves a sport at 5 yrs old, unless mommy and daddy are pushing him. Is he living his dream or yours. Would your son have done Community Service if it was not on the Duke Admisions Form. If your Son was so Community Orientated, Why hasn't he come forward to speak up about the crime. At no point do you even write about the Victim, You try to make the LAX team the victims.
I pitty you and wonder how your son will make it in the real world without his mother to fight his battles

04/06/06 at 02:18
While I feel bad for the parents involved, I suspect many of them suffer from an inability to see their offspring as they really are away from home. As parents, we rarely can see our children's misbehavior until we are confronted with it, myself included.

No, the guilty parties have not been convicted and I have no right to pronounce judgement until I'm on a jury pool. But the fact remains that there are young men in this group who know what happened to the stripper and no one has the character or integrity to step up with the information.

The latest email to leak out is repulsive. The fact that 15 of them have arrests is scary. I had a good time in college too and I don't think those arrests make them bad kids but the pattern shows a group out of control. That is something Duke athletics needs to answer too. The coach quitting is fine but where was the institutional oversight? It looks like minor bad behavior unchecked steamrolled into a very bad situation. Where was Duke's AD office and coaches?

Duke is trying to take care of the community problems by throwing money at them in buying those houses. I can see how it got to that point but it is a shame even a few dozen students can't seem to control themselves enough to live off campus.

Oh and as for those graduation rates... lacrosse is a sport of privilege. Graduation rates should be high considering these kids came from prep schools and families with resources to help them through college. These kids are recruited from some of the best prep schools in America.

I'm sorry for the young men who play lacrosse at Duke who didn't do anything wrong. If they want to save their reputations, I suggest they tell the people who know what happened to tell the truth.

While the media has painted the group with broad strokes, the team is doing most of the damage to itself by protecting the few young men who commited the crime. So perhaps the mother of the player who emailed should be pointing the finger at her angelic son's teammates and their lawyers first.

This all raises some good questions for athletes parents during the recruiting process. I don't know why a Christian young man with such high ethics would even want to go play at a program where a third of the players have arrests - as a mom, I'd be very concerned about that. I'm curious if that mother who contacted the N&O asked any questions about team conduct and discpline.

04/07/06 at 11:55
How to control behavior among student athletes and all students receiving university funded financial aid....get arrested, lose your scholarship.

04/08/06 at 08:17
"No, the guilty parties have not been convicted and I have no right to pronounce judgement until I'm on a jury pool."

Wow. This kind of comment scares the heck out of me both as a citizen and as a defense attorney. This poster knows that there are guilty parties and that all is left is for a jury to ratify what is already known. God help anyone accused of a crime if this poster manages to get seated on his jury.

After an alleged thirty minute ordeal involving rape, sodomy, and assault, three lacrosse captains volunteer for lie detector testing, and defense lawyers publicly guarantee that there will be no DNA matches. Either no rape occurred, or the lacrosse team and their lawyers are fools.

It will be interesting to see what kind of comments, if any, that posters of this ilk later make if the State's case continues to fall apart.

04/08/06 at 19:54
John,

I've been following your comments.

That "I have no right to pronounce judgement until I'm on a jury pool" comment scared me too.

By reminding others of how our system is supposed to work, and of the rights and freedoms we all have, you're helping preserve it.

Thank you. And please keep commenting!

www.johnincarolina.com

05/17/06 at 12:03
"No, the guilty parties have not been convicted and I have no right to pronounce judgement until I'm on a jury pool."

I don't know why this statement would scare anyone - unless you don't want guilty parties brought to justice. We do know that crimes were committed that night by the Duke boys - underage drinking, violation of probation and other agreements with the court. We also know, by their own admission, that things got very ugly that night, and they acted like bullies, not gentlemen. And we do know another crime has been committed - we just don't know if it's the Duke boys (raping, sodomizing and strangling) or if it's the dancer they hired (false accusations). Some have accused Nifong of wrongdoing as well. Let's hope and pray that they all get their day in court.

And let's stop pretending that these are just good, honorable, upstanding young men with pure souls being victimized by this all-mighty vixen.They put themselves in this position through their own actions and decisions, just as she put herself in this position through her own actions and decisions. Now they all have to live with the consequences of their actions. Life's tough.