Lehigh statement on the suspension of a football student-athlete
12/8/2011 8:31:00 PM | Football
Statement from Lehigh Murray H. Goodman '48 Dean of Athletics Joe Sterrett '76 on the suspension of a football student-athlete:
“A Lehigh student-athlete who used a slang racial epithet in a social media exchange late last week has been suspended by the NCAA FCS Championships Committee for Saturday's NCAA Football Quarterfinal.
At the time the incident was discovered, the student made a series of apologies and Lehigh imposed an obligation to conduct a series of campus discussions around the topics of derogatory racial language and its impact. The decision to suspend participation for the game this week results from the adverse impact on the FCS Championship caused by the message.
The poor judgment by our student in responding to an inflammatory message by using the same inappropriate language ultimately served to disaffect the FCS Championship. The suspension delivers a clear message that this is not acceptable behavior within college athletics.
The educational initiatives within the Lehigh community remain an essential part of our efforts to make this unfortunate episode a valuable learning experience. This has been a very difficult experience for an individual who is a very strong student, and has been a productive athlete and a respected member of our football program.
In speaking with Andy Coen, our head football coach, we both believe that coaches are educators with a responsibility to do what we can to help our student-athletes grow, not just as athletes, but as people. This incident has been an incredible learning experience for us.
I believe it is our responsibility to help students understand that this language is unacceptable, whether the medium is a social media posting, casual conversation, or within the confines of a song.
We continue to take steps to ensure we accomplish this at Lehigh and urge colleagues and fellow coaches to educate themselves about the realities of this disrespectful environment and adopt a sincere commitment to help eliminate it.”
The following statement was issued by the student-athlete on his own accord:
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