Statement from Andy Coen on comments and misuse of social media
12/5/2011 12:33:00 AM | Football
Head Coach Andy' Coen's comment on inappropriate comments and misuse of social media by a member of the football team:
“Regrettably, one of our student-athletes received late last week a twitter message from a former high school teammate that used an inappropriate and repugnant racial reference to describe Towson team members and their intentions regarding the game with Lehigh. Our student-athlete initiated his response to this message by quoting the inappropriate reference. The use of this racially insensitive characterization is unacceptable and inconsistent with the values and expectations of our Lehigh community and football program. . While the inappropriate language did not originate with our student-athlete, when he reused the words, he made them his.
In responding, our student-athlete suggested essentially that such talk was a sign of weakness and our team planned to make it a long day for Towson on the field. Engaging in any kind of digital sparring via social media violates the Athletics Department social media policy and will result in sanctions for the student-athlete that include making educational presentations to other teams about appropriate use of social media, as well as arranging for and leading team discussions with each of our sports about the University's Principles of an Equitable Community. I addressed the matter directly with the student-athlete on Saturday morning as soon as I learned about it. It is always our obligation to use our experiences as learning opportunities and accordingly, this episode was shared with the full team on Sunday.
The student-athlete posted an apology using the same social medium used in the original exchange and he shared with our team today that he used poor judgment and unacceptable insensitivity in the way he responded to the message. He also stood before his teammates and apologized to them and to the coaching staff and the University.
The education of our student-athletes in every way that we can have a constructive impact on their learning will continue to be a central goal of our football program and department.”
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