Parents of Jacksonville XC runner file suit against university and coach after her suicide

Unfortunate that anyone commits suicide. But don't you think that someone compeled to be a serial marathon cheater already has mental health issues in the first place?

As for women in college, the coaches will be a pivotal role model to them. Especially since most young women automatically place a lot of trust in authority figures or coaches, as women also generally like being told what to do. So if a coach uses that trust to be abusive, it will be difficult for any young woman to overcome without adequate emotional strength and peer support. A coach using their age and leverage to exploit or abuse people has no place in sport, especially one being involved with girls and women.

Yeah this appears more like a character flaw/s in the authority than a mistake.

The Addy Wiley attacks on this site are concerning me for the same reason as the topic here.

mmmm, I think her being manipulated/assaulted is more concerning than LetsRun threads.

I truly do despise the hateful people and hateful things that are said on the LRC forums. It is sad to see how anonymity can sometimes bring out the worst in people. It really is.

But I have to admit that equating this circumstance that occurred between an athlete, her coach and her team with the hate that's spewed on Letsrun is not close to being realistic. In this circumstance at Jacksonville, a coach verbally abused an athlete, and the school turned their back on her and covered for the coach. This coach misused the personal relationship he had with an athlete. Coach/athlete relationships have an element of vulnerability on the side of the athlete. Fat shaming and bullying an athlete is never acceptable.

I do not claim to know the situations that malmo is discussing here. But the LRC forums are a different beast than what I just described. Everyone here operates with anonymity or at least some personal barrier between people. Even if you might know the identity of someone, you are not in relationship with that person. People have the ability to, more or less, to speak their minds in a format that encourages the broadest possible dialogue. This is a beautiful and terrible thing, because it creates great discussion and sometimes gross discussion. People can say hateful things while hiding behind anonymity. Things they'd never say to a real person because it's unacceptable in the setting of a personal relationship.

So, I am not justifying hate on any level on LRC. But I feel like it should be clarified that hate on LRC and hate in real life are not the same thing. I have had hateful things said to me on this website. I cannot and do not take that stuff to heart, because A) I don't know who the person is and have no relationship to them, B) I know they wouldn't say it to my face if they did know me, and C) They probably don't even mean what they say. They are just hating to hate something.

It's a tragedy that hate on LRC would cause harm to people. And I acknowledge that it probably does happen a lot. But you have to understand that part of interacting on LRC is accepting haters as a reality and resolving not to take their hate personally. If someone has a problem with that, I advise they don't go on Letsrun.

I think it's great if rojo wants to bring this terrible story to light. It is bringing awareness to a tragedy that more people should know about. I don't know about other situations people have brought up, but my deepest condolences go to those as well. I just think it's helpful to consider the differences between these situations.

There is no hate on LetsRun. Non PC statements (that are factually correct) are not “hate”

The Addy Wiley story is quite different and difficult. Most people view her as a modern day Lynn Jennings. She, however, does not. I think I'm going to reach out to Lynn and have her contact Addy.

But as for this thread, please keep the posts on topic.

All posts about other mental-health threads - Wiley/CU/Meza - are off topic and have been deleted. If you want to talk to us about moderation of mental health threads, you can pick up the phone and reach me. Or Text me. 844-LETSRUN.

My post was not about Wiley, CU, or Meza. Why was it deleted?

Yes, I mentioned church culture but only as a point of comparison. I guess now all metaphors are grounds for deletion, since the comparison and imagery could be "derailing."

It's a slippery slope to paint with broad strokes any associations one incident to another often unrelated incident.

Rarely are all the facts known to those outside the reported incident. The interweb opens up the opportunity for many to comment, gossip, and opine on things they may have zero knowledge of. This is the nature of open communication we find ourselves in these days.

YouTubers who freely use this Social Media forum to present themseleves and their content for public consumption should expect a level of scrutiny and criticism concerning what they are selling.

Because LRC is interested in all things running, it is only natural for those on LRC to be a bit more discerning and critical of those who present running content on their running YouTube channels.

In these current unsettled times we live in, I'm not sure the worldwide mental health condition of the world can be considered healthy. To think LRC can moderate or remove all unhealthy viewpoints on the forums is naive. With that being said, persons under 18 should be treated with appropriate levels of age-related tolerance.

It should also be said humor can often be misinterprted as something it is not intended when presented in the online sphere. The moderators often don't have the ability to recognize this difference.

There are always two sides to a story. One must be fair and impartial until all the facts are known. Online clickbait stories often overlook this in order to sensationalize the story for their own purposes and not to get at the truth.

The filing of a lawsuit with the facts claimed isn't clickbait.

You are an ugly human being? Learning disabilities justifies abuse? Pretty sure you should be praying for yourself

A woman I went to high school with has learning disabilities; she was in special ed classes (I believe for lower than average IQ, but I'm just guessing. TBH, I'm not entirely sure what all of her LDs are) but she actually obtained her B.A. and M.A. from NIU, and is successfully employed.

How do you know so much about a 25 year old who you knew very little about when you were in the same environment as her?

I'm quoting this from a comment on the New York Post article

nypost.com

Florida coach ‘humiliated’ and ‘fat shamed’ runner before her suicide

@nypost

The parents of Juila Pernsteiner are suing Jacksonville University and its former track coach, who they say “humiliated” their daughter before she took her own life.

Link:nypost.com/2023/02/22/fla-coach-humili...

The lawsuit says "Julia suffered from ADHD and severe dyslexia, dysgraphia and dyscalculia. " It follows with "Julia had a measured Full Scale IQ of 84 and was emotionally young for her chronological age."