This Can’t Be Good For School Image…
To Duke fans like myself we thought losing to LSU in the Sweet 16 was bad. Then news surfaces this week about the Men’s Lacrosse team allegedly assaulting a female exotic dancer at an off-campus location. Suddenly the loss to LSU wasn’t that big of a deal.
Parties like the one thrown by the lacrosse team occcur all the time on college campuses across the country. I’ve been to them, and more than likely you have too.
What made that party different then most is the inexcusable actions of a few of the members of the team that allegedly occurred. For those of you that haven’t heard already let me sum up the situation.
The men’s lacrosse team hired some dancers for a party they were throwing. It is estimated that around 50 guys were there where the girls were under the assumption that only a small group of around 5-10 guys would be there. Already feeling uncomfortable the girls were then allegedly verbally abused mainly through racial slurs. Both women were African American, all of the men were white. The girls left, were convinced somehow to come back in, and then one of the girls was assaulted by 3 men in the bathroom…allegedly.
As we all know Duke University is affluent school filled with what most consider “smart kids”. What went down on this night was anything but smart.
Some will argue that the girls put themselves in that situation by being exotic dancers, going to an off-campus party with a bunch of college guys without any sort of protection. But you won’t find that argument here.
It doesn’t matter what a female wears or how she acts or what she does for a living…none of that gives a man a right to assualt her, verbally and especially physically. This woman (a college student and mother of two) is working to make a living and support her family so that one day she won’t have to resort to “modeling shoes” as a way to make a buck.
It’s an honest living. I wouldn’t want my daughter doing it…but still it’s an honest living. Exotic dancers, nude models, shoe models, strippers or whatever you wanna call them can earn up to $1000 a night and some make up to six figures a year. Are you making that much right now? I doubt it.
What concerns me the most about this story is that it took so long for the public to find out. Had this been the Men’s Basketball Team or the football team this story probably would have been out the day after it happened. Of course had this been one of the big time money makers at the school, the punishment probably wouldn’t have been so harsh.
The Duke lacrosse team season has been suspended until this investigation is over. All of the white men on the team have submitted their DNA samples and are awaiting the outcome of those results. None of the team members are speaking to authorities about what happened. 
I am all for being a team on and off the field and sticking up for your breathren and not throwing anyone under the proverbial bus, but this situation is different. These men need to own up to what happened, or didn’t happen what ever the case may be and settle this thing before the results from the DNA test get back. This situation is not only damaging to the athletic department it is damaging to the whole school’s image.
Duke has gone from an elitist private university to a school where their student athletes are rascist rapists who believe that they are above the law. Sure, lacrosse is not that big of a sport but the size of the crime that some of these players allegedly commited has made this rather small sport a large mess.