What a load of Bullsh*t
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So I went to AOL.com to check my email, when I see a headline titled "Duke Apologizes to Lacrosse Players". So I check it out, curious of what it's about. As I should have expected, AOL News sucks, so I googled the title, and found an article from the Duke Chronicle on the same story.
My first reaction was that the Duke Administration had finally come to their senses (For those of you who don't know, I'm probably the biggest Duke backer on this site). It would have taken them months since the charges were dropped to come clean and admit that they screwed up. They would have made the most important move they could in the impossible task of correcting the horrible mistakes Mike Nifong receive even less scrutiny then they would receive otherwise.
I would have been able to look at University President Richard Broadhead in a positive light. For it was he who suspended the Duke Lacrosse Season. It was he who fired Mike Pressler, then head coach of the Duke Lacrosse Team. He kicked out the players without allowing due process to serve its course. It was him who pulled the most arrogant move after the event by offering to let them to return to School. As if these kids want to go back to the town that turned against them, to the school that turned their backs towards them in their hour of need.
But it wasn't what was necessary. Broadhead said the right thing, and then destroyed everything he had just said:
“First, the type of crime that had been alleged had no place in our community,” he said. “Second, the presumption of innocence is fundamental to our legal system, and our students were entitled to that presumption. And third, this whole matter had to be entrusted to the criminal justice system for its resolution.” He added that he regretted that relying on the justice system—which he described as “only as good as the men and women who administer it,”—may have made the strength of the University’s position unclear. “Duke needed to be clear that it demanded fair treatment for its students,” Brodhead said. “I took that for granted. If any doubted it, then I should have been more explicit.”
Is anyone else really irritated by this quote? Considering that he jumped the gun and kicked the kids out of the school before the facts were released? Considering that this is the exact same guy who told Pressler "It's not about the truth"? This is a load of bullshit, plain and simple. Broadhead is not sorry. Nor will he learn from this experience. He will continue to pre-judge his students when they need his backing and support.
The battle is not over. The kids are being allowed to finish school (those who haven't/hadn't all ready graduated), and Nyfong is fired. But Broadhead still remains in power, and still has yet to come clean on this whole issue.
