I talked to a UK student who knows some of the cheerleaders. She said that it was a mother of one of the female cheerleaders who complained and that this mom has caused trouble in the past. The cheerleaders think this was blown all out of proportion and are very upset about losing their coaches. Third hand info I realize FWIW.

 

Same story I heard.

I am gonna guess that the tattletale cheerleader is in for a bad career as a UK cheerleader.

I talked to a UK student who knows some of the cheerleaders. She said that it was a mother of one of the female cheerleaders who complained and that this mom has caused trouble in the past. The cheerleaders think this was blown all out of proportion and are very upset about losing their coaches. Third hand info I realize FWIW.

 

Blown out of proportion, really what does that mean? How much of the report was true and how much was false?

Blown out of proportion, really what does that mean? How much of the report was true and how much was false?

 

Don’t know. I sent 3 kids through college. Though they were “adults,” I am pretty sure they weren’t at a prayer meeting every night. No doubt they pushed limits which is what kids do in college. So, when a college kid tells me it was “blown out of proportion” I interpret that as maybe they weren’t saints, but maybe they were not sinners either. Sounds about right for college kids to me. Not condoning it, but not condemning it either.

Edited May 23, 20206 yr by Beechwoodfan

The issue here is what the coaches did, not what the students did. If the coaches were aware of underage drinking happening while they were on a retreat or if hazing of any form was happening, those likely go against their contract’s code of ethics and firing was the correct thing to do.

 

And...of course college kids think it was no big deal.

The issue here is what the coaches did, not what the students did. If the coaches were aware of underage drinking happening while they were on a retreat or if hazing of any form was happening, those likely go against their contract’s code of ethics and firing was the correct thing to do.

 

And...of course college kids think it was no big deal.

 

I agree that the coaches were wrong. Firing them was the only thing UK could do once it became public. On paper they did the right thing.

The issue here is what the coaches did, not what the students did. If the coaches were aware of underage drinking happening while they were on a retreat or if hazing of any form was happening, those likely go against their contract’s code of ethics and firing was the correct thing to do.

 

And...of course college kids think it was no big deal.

 

Yep. No matter how “normal” you think this is, if you are a coach, and you become aware of it, or worse, witness it, you have to do something about it.

 

As to labeling the cheerleader who ratted, remember it’s like harassment in the workplace. Not everyone is going to think partying naked is fun or will want to participate in it. What do people think would happen if the behavior described happened in the workplace, and the boss knew it and allowed it and someone got offended? In most places, the manager that allowed it would probably get fired.

If you have time and the inclination, the actual investigative report can be found on UK’s website with a simple google search.

 

There’s a lot of sensationalizing that’s going on in the press. The names of the athletes involved have been redacted, but in all but one case, most of the athletes interviewed said the coaches were unaware of much of the behavior that went on.

 

One of the coaches did reportedly participate in the basket tosses into the lake. However, most of the statements about nudity were predicated with “said she heard some of the participants were (insert applicable level of nudity here).

 

The university fired the coaches involved for failing to provide oversight on the trips when some of these activities allegedly occurred. They were not terminated for “allowing” it to go on, and there is very little in the investigative report to substantiate that they were allowing any of it.

 

The claims of financial conflicts of interest escape me. These athletes are not regulated by the NCAA, and are broke college kids. 16 of them receive some level of scholarship dollars, the rest are paying tuition or on whatever financial aid package they receive from the financial aid office. The allegations of financial conflict of interest are made against two of the coaches and an adviser. The adviser apparently hired the kids to do odd-jobs around his house like yard work. He’s been with the program since the early 80’s, and i would venture to say he has probably been doing this the whole 40 years. The other two coaches own cheerleading business and hired broke college cheerleaders from the best program in the country to work for them in their business. One would be hard pressed to say they could have hired more qualified individuals outside of the program.