I've been debating about posting this since I heard about it. I just didn't feel I could do it justice.
There was another piece in the paper, that I've quoted below. Too bad the above article was on the front page.
Quote:
By Bill McEwen / The Fresno Bee
I suppose it's too late for apologies and rational discussion in the case of the wrestling move that Clovis police and the Fresno County District Attorney's Office say was sexual battery.
We're not much for letting principals, parents, coaches and young people work things out for the benefit of all parties these days. Instead, we're quick to call the cops or the lawyers or the media and move school disputes into the public arena -- where opinions form hard and fast and students may lose their privacy.
If you missed the story, here's the summary. A former Buchanan High School wrestler is headed to a juvenile court trial Thursday on allegations that he committed a misdemeanor on a younger teammate by performing a "butt drag" during a practice session last summer.
The father of the accused said that his son was taught the move -- which involves grabbing the buttocks of an opponent to gain leverage -- in middle school and that it's a commonly used technique. A police report says that the older wrestler also stuck his fingers where they didn't belong, constituting molestation.
I asked Dennis DeLiddo, the former Fresno State wrestling coach, about the butt drag. "It's a regular move. You grab the top of the rear end and steer it one way or the other. Once every 8 million times, your finger might [inadvertently] get in there."
So, the butt drag doesn't involve anything else?
"Not unless coaches are teaching it differently than I did," DeLiddo said.
This case could've been best resolved without the cops and the courts. The parents and principal meet. The older wrestler apologizes. The kids shake hands. The principal, if not the district superintendent, tells the coach there will be no more butt drags with probing fingers. Finally, the principal tells the coach to keep a closer eye out for hazing and bullying.
Both wrestlers return to the team. The aggressor is suspended for a few matches and is required to do community service at the school. A lesson is learned. A problem is resolved. There are consequences for what the older wrestler did. The school and the district take a stand against an inappropriate wrestling move. The two students are spared of much of the notoriety rising from this now public situation.
But the cops were called and a report was filed. And, most curiously, the District Attorney's Office -- which often complains about being short-staffed and overworked -- decided to go forward with sexual battery charges against a 17-year-old who performed a move taught him by coaches years before. Moreover, the alleged assault took place in a room filled with coaches and teammates and no one said a word about it at the time.
My hope is that the judge in Thursday's proceedings will have more common sense at his or her disposal than what the D.A.'s Office has shown thus far.
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It is pretty rough, the kid charged has a DA really pushing the case hard.
Here is a followup
article, stating that the DA offered a deal to make it go away.
Anyone who has wrestled knows that you can sometime be embarrassed by what happens during a match. There is a lot of touching. That is what the sport is all about. Now is it possible that this kid did intentionally violate the other as retribution? Sure. Is it possible that this kid performed perfectly legitimate maneuver, and as a consequence inadvertently "checked the oil"? Sure. I don't believe the answer to the real potential problem here lies in examining what happened on the mat. If there was bullying, then address it as bullying. The specific "mechanics" of the bullying can be addressed far short of the approach taken.
The school district and the officials involved are all about zero tolerance, rather than addressing a potential real issue with a sensible response.