Haverford Runner Leaves Team After Allegation of Sexual Assault, No Charges Brought, Sues to Get Back on Team

Rojo, I think that you should rewrite this post

Don't drink and attempt to have sex.

I am making a whole lot of assumptions but based on the typical sexual assault case I am 99% certain some sort of encounter involving alcohol was involved. Accidental sexual assault happens a lot in this age group because of bad decision making and alcohol and is usually brushed off.

Alan

Coaches today are in such a hard spot, their hands are tied. It doesn’t matter if something happened or not, think of the blow back they would face if the story got more attention.

“College coach allows rapist back on team and make him captain…” Athletic directors always kick the can on this as well.
These days as a coach you have to balance mental health, Title IX complaints, eating disorders AND recruiting, eligibility, training, travel, and if you are competitive they might fire you. All for 40k

The people who defend the Title IX process will actually tell you with a straight face that the lack of due process isn't a problem because its just an academic procedure or whatever, not a court of law. Its stories like that should show you how full of doodoo those people are. The ability to weaponize a rumor without anyone coming forward to actually bring the complaint as occurred here is a big, big issue. Its bad enough that there are problems with the male not being allowed to "face his accuser" (part of due process in court settings) when the accuser actually accuses him; here he has faced a major consequence despite being literally unable to face an accuser because there is no accuser!

Title IX is an anti male kangaroo court

I actually wrote it. Becca sent it to me.

Generally, I think a coach should be able to do whatever they want with their team but if the school has a policy you can’t be removed from a team without a formal Title IX hearing then the coach would need to follow that policy right?

But judge ruled against student being out back on treat w injunction.

And as for people saying don’t drink and have sex I wasn’t able to find any sexual allegation actually alleged. Not 100% sure as I was reading quickly but student may deny any sexual activity took place. Very confusing case.

Seems like the team knows more about what went on than a bunch of people on a message board.

The Haverford Coach is Tom Donnelly, he's a running legend and has been there for almost 50 years. He's has a reputation for being a very nice guy.

I certainly agree. Not a Haverford runner but was recruited by Tom and found him to be an open and genuine guy who did a good job letting the recruiting trip be about the team and not dictating things himself. However, there there was an air of respect about him that bordered on cult-like (maybe not his fault). I have also gotten the sense that there have been athletes who get on his or the team's bad side and aren't necessarily welcomed back.

At the risk of sounding like certain posters on these boards, Haverford is the exact kind of ultra-left liberal arts college that piques the conservative imagination a few times a year. Regardless of the truth of the matter (none of us know), it is concerning that the admin seemingly did nothing to prevent a student from posting a list of student enemies to be bullied off campus. I think it's plausible that Haverford's administration, like many institutions in 2022, feels handcuffed by an extreme and very vocal student body. Coach Tom is old and probably near retirement and I can't imagine it's easy for him to navigate the politics of a place like Haverford, especially trying to maintain some semblance of a team. I know that I would have struggled to against the tide in a situation like this, especially at a very small school where everyone knows each other and suspect there are more dynamics at play here than a black and white situation in either direction.

Tell me if I'm following this correctly:

-The person wasn't proven guilty of a crime.

-The person wasn't charged with a crime.

-Despite not having been charged or convicted with a crime, the person was still investigated by his school and was cleared.

-Yet he was kicked off of a sports team based on nothing but a rumor.

Is that the new standard, "Start a rumor you can't prove and ruin a life" standard?

Bro is gonna be known as a rapist on campus anywhere the team sees him. Feels bad to be ostracized for a crime he may or may not have even commited. Imagine someone saying Rojo is a domestic abuser...People would $hit on him all because of a rumor. Always go with innocent till proven guilty. That girl for all we know is doing it as revenge but hell do we know...Were just a bunch of old timers past our youth days.

I want to throw in the part about the coach having the kid do a one on one fitness test with him is super disconcerting. You coach a D3 team that takes pretty much anyone and suddenly a factor in your decision to let a kid accused of rape rejoin the team is how fit he is?? And you have to see that one on one?? What did he have him run 400s until he dropped? If he's being removed for being a rumored rapist then his fitness shouldn't mean a damn thing. If that happened as described it screams pretext and a poor CYA attempt. What's the best case scenario? "Yes I know we removed him because of a rape allegation and that didn't work out as we thought but the result of his not being allowed on the team he isn't fit enough to be on the team so we aren't letting him back and oh yeah we do have runners who wouldn't make a HS varsity squad but this doesn't apply to them."

Former Haverford runner here, albeit one far enough removed to only have second and third hand knowledge of the team, and certainly far enough removed to not know the details of the case. During my time and the time before it (and very much seems that way since), the culture has been very strong and very positive (with some issues, many for which I can take more that a little blame). So if the team and its leadership made the decision to not welcome him back and Tom supported them in it, I feel confident that they made a good and informed decision. My experience is that the team was welcoming and inclusive of all sorts of folks, but had a highly attuned immune system, so my distant take is that is playing a significant role here.

As for the love and admiration of Tom being cult-like and a bit weird - if that is a crime, lock me up and be prepared to lock up lots of better people than me. I’m a roughly 40 year old father of two with a professional life and personal life for which I am very proud, and I can think of few more important people in my life, to this day, than Tom. It was a privilege to run for him and to learn from him, and I have every confidence that the team making this hard decision did so with the best possible example from Tom.

That's how it works on this board with regard to Huntington University.

Sorry to hear that. Makes me glad I'm not a male kangaroo.

How many people are captains at Haverford? How are they picked?

The guy kicked off team was captain as a junior.

To start with, the athlete should never have voluntarily left. To me, that gives the coach more leeway. I got kicked off my college team, and how it was presented to me was, there needs to be a violation of spme rule to remove an existing student athlete from their team. I dont think that protection extends to someone (re)joining the team.

Secondly, they only need to follow the policy if the administrator overseeing the team enforces it. Very unlikely that an AD or associate AD is going to step in and take the side of an athlete who, in many on campus’s eyes, is a rapist as soon as he is accused.

a couple years ago Haverford students went on strike for 14 days because they thought the administration didn't do enough SJW things. they even had a list of demands.

https://www.hc-strike.com/

haverford.edu

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That's nothing. Just this evening, the Haverford cafeteria served "southern style fried chicken" for dinner and included vegan alternatives.

haverford.edu

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