DisSeveral additional details concerning the hazing allegation within the Western Kentucky University (WKU) swimming program have now come to light, as the Bowling Green (KY) Police Department has concluded its investigation.
With search warrant in hand, the BGPD seized several items from the house where the hazing was reported to have occurred. According to the WKU Herald, items seized included two beer kegs, two marijuana grinders, two marijuana pipes, one pill bottle with marijuana stems and five picture boards full of various photographs were among the items seized during the search from the house’s residents. Multiple electronics, including several game consoles, cell phones and flash drives were also seized. (WKU Herald)
BGPD then met with Huda Melky, director and Title IX Coordinator for WKU, to review “picture boards” that were obtained from the aforementioned house, which contained collages of various highly intoxicated students in nude or partially nude sexually charged positions, with at least one having a racial slur written on it. See full descriptions within the WKU Herald article here.
The BGPD considered its investigation closed on February 26th and the Title IX case was finalized on April 6th, with Melky then releasing her findings. As previously reported, the Title IX investigation discovered that “individual members of the team were pressured to drink underage, subjected to calisthenics – called the “freshman ‘f*ck around’” and endured mental abuse brought around by “taping and replaying embarrassing or compromising activity in order to subject the individual to ridicule.” The investigators also found that alcohol was offered to and accepted by high school recruits. Additionally, the investigators determined that swim team head coach Bruce Marchionda“knew about the hazing and sexual harassment since spring 2012 based on an email he received from a former swimmer.”
The Title IX report recommended that the involved student-athletes be referred to Office of Judicial Affairs for further action. In the meantime, President Gary Randsdell tells the Herald that he has “serious concerns….We are taking it very seriously and will address it….It’ll take a little time to deal with it, but we’ll deal with it.”
“Forced” to drink?
http://www.wbko.com/home/headlines/WKU-Swimmers-Attorney-Tells-Their-Side-Of-The-Story-301224221.html
It’s not just the risk of losing their job that coaches should be concerned about. By allowing such behavior to occur or turning their backs on it, they are giving permission to allow physical and emotional harm to the victims. These young adults will have to emotionally heal from such an event, which could cause emotional problems to continue deep into adulthood and even cause trust issues with spouses/partners as well as others. This maintaining or improving the overall well being of their athletes should be a bigger moral focus for coaches rather than legality. Coaches should hold their athletes to high standards in how they treat each other in and out of the pool, not only by how they… Read more »
It is both sad and tragic that any hazing activties continue to take place with all knowledge we have about how detrimental they are to the athletes, the programs and the schools. Hazing, intimidation and ridicule have never added to team building and indeed do just the opposite. Even a single event casts a shadow over all sports and programs, harming the quality programs by raising questions about the value of the athletics program at the university or college. Hopefully–and I believe this to be the case–hazing and harassment are not widespread and the outstanding athletes, coaches and administrators–and parents–can do more to promote awareness of how damaging these actions are. I discussed this story with my son who graduated… Read more »
Thankfully, I had the same experience as your son.
Arrogance!
Here’s what I don’t understand at all…the exposure recently of various “hazing” incidents and the repercussions associated with them for both athletes and coaches…doesn’t seem to deter this from happening at other programs around the country.
I get the argument (even though I don’t agree with it) that college kids are going to behave a certain way…but when you see that athletes are getting removed from universities because of this, why wouldn’t you think twice before doing it???
And if you’re the coach and your livelihood depends on you keeping your job, why wouldn’t you put your thumb on this and crack down? Especially if you knew it was happening?
I agree. I find hazing to be ridiculous and unnecessary; and generally have no sympathy for those who get in trouble for it. It was 2006 – 9 years ago – when badjocks.com posted hazing pictures from 12 different collegiate sports teams across the country. Coaches were fired.
I have friends who coach college teams who I know don’t have strong feelings about hazing. So, they do their short anti-hazing talk at the beginning of the season, but don’t really forbid it; and expect some level of hazing to go on. Those dudes are one unhappy camper making a stink from potentially losing their jobs. I guess they must not see it.
For those who think that hazing has… Read more »
In reading the article about the hazing house, I would hate to see how these people treat their enemies if the people on the picture board are their friends. This is disgusting behavior for anyone and frankly with all of the news stories regarding this type of behavior, it is unbelievable to me that this is still the norm anywhere. I guess I was lucky, but I swam at an ACC school and was never hazed and never heard any talk of it.
This was much more than I thought. Figured it was an over-sensitive kid being judged in a normal way, but really this sounds like an actual case that could end up ruining this Kentucky program. Not good for these swimmers or coaches, saddening the coach knew and did nothing about it. Bad example for college swimming and sports in general.
Doesn’t Claire Donahue swim at Western KY? I hope the coach in question here is not her coach, because his job is in jeapordy and I wouldn’t want this scandal to derail her preparation for Kazan.
Yeah…that would be the real shame out of all of this…
Josh, I don’t appreciate your snide comment. Expressing concern about the only person I’ve ever heard about who has any association with Western KY University doesn’t make me insensitive to its effect on everybody else!
Well, I’ll admit I was wrong. These kids took it way too far. That’s long past acceptable.