Thursday, April 20
Weblog Post #16 - The Rene Portland Debacle
After nearly six months, Penn State University has finally announced the findings of its investigation against women's basketball coach Rene Portland. University finds Portland in violation of discrimination policy
Judging by Collegian articles from the past several weeks, the climate on the Penn State campus is quite heated. Catch-an-Immigrant Days, Sweat Shops and the foolish Peachy Paterno "issue" are just some of the most recent protests and topics hounding the school.
This week it's Portland and in today's blog I am going to try and explain why the actions committed by the University were useless.
First of all, Portland's punishment will be a $10,000 fine in lieu of a one-game suspension. There was also talk about enrolling Portland in some kind of discrimination education class.
I see two possible underlying statements from this result:
"We think Rene is innocent and we are doing this to keep her and shut people up."
or
"We don't really care and we are doing this to keep Rene and shut people up.
Will it shut people up? Heck no! These people never shut up.
If the allegations are true, I would agree that the punishment is ridiculous. Ten grand and some classes aren''t going to do anything to a 50-year-old woman who doesn't think she did anything wrong. The only cost is humiliation.
The biggest mistake is not releasing any sort of findings or results to the public. This just further separates the supporters from the doubters. Personally, I think Harris is full of it. I went to a lot of women's games when she was on the team and she was visibly a hot head. It was apparent at times that she was not a team player and she rarely hid her displeasure with the calls from officials or the coaching staff.
So regardless of the accusations, when Portland says Harris was a disturbance to the team, I believe it.
There are also a lot of odd holes in the case that I haven't read anything about. Jen Harris was dismissed from the team with two other players. What are their stories? Are they lesbians? What's the deal with that? Harris isn't alone in this, but people continue to think she is.
The only thing I keep reading is that Portland thought Harris should dress more feminine. (Well gosh, that must mean she's a lesbian, right?) If every men's basketball coach had to go through this lawsuit bologna for telling his players to dress more "manly," there'd be a good number of silly lawsuits. I am sure many coaches have told their players to not dress like "thugs", "pansies" or messy.
I need more. I need to hear what the other two players have to say. I think Harris is looking for easy cash and some attention. But if I am wrong and there is some proof (the key word is proof) that Portland clearly discriminated, then her punishment needs to be more harsh.
So overall, a meaningless punishment, an unclear conclusion and further confusing messages to the public have not been very helpful to the public who might be paying for Harris's crazy lawsuit when all is said and done.
Judging by Collegian articles from the past several weeks, the climate on the Penn State campus is quite heated. Catch-an-Immigrant Days, Sweat Shops and the foolish Peachy Paterno "issue" are just some of the most recent protests and topics hounding the school.
This week it's Portland and in today's blog I am going to try and explain why the actions committed by the University were useless.
First of all, Portland's punishment will be a $10,000 fine in lieu of a one-game suspension. There was also talk about enrolling Portland in some kind of discrimination education class.
I see two possible underlying statements from this result:
"We think Rene is innocent and we are doing this to keep her and shut people up."
or
"We don't really care and we are doing this to keep Rene and shut people up.
Will it shut people up? Heck no! These people never shut up.
If the allegations are true, I would agree that the punishment is ridiculous. Ten grand and some classes aren''t going to do anything to a 50-year-old woman who doesn't think she did anything wrong. The only cost is humiliation.
The biggest mistake is not releasing any sort of findings or results to the public. This just further separates the supporters from the doubters. Personally, I think Harris is full of it. I went to a lot of women's games when she was on the team and she was visibly a hot head. It was apparent at times that she was not a team player and she rarely hid her displeasure with the calls from officials or the coaching staff.
So regardless of the accusations, when Portland says Harris was a disturbance to the team, I believe it.
There are also a lot of odd holes in the case that I haven't read anything about. Jen Harris was dismissed from the team with two other players. What are their stories? Are they lesbians? What's the deal with that? Harris isn't alone in this, but people continue to think she is.
The only thing I keep reading is that Portland thought Harris should dress more feminine. (Well gosh, that must mean she's a lesbian, right?) If every men's basketball coach had to go through this lawsuit bologna for telling his players to dress more "manly," there'd be a good number of silly lawsuits. I am sure many coaches have told their players to not dress like "thugs", "pansies" or messy.
I need more. I need to hear what the other two players have to say. I think Harris is looking for easy cash and some attention. But if I am wrong and there is some proof (the key word is proof) that Portland clearly discriminated, then her punishment needs to be more harsh.
So overall, a meaningless punishment, an unclear conclusion and further confusing messages to the public have not been very helpful to the public who might be paying for Harris's crazy lawsuit when all is said and done.
# posted by Jonathan : 8:59 AM
