By Melissa Boyd (Whetstone Staff Writer)
Melissa Boyd
I’m not an athlete. I tried soccer once in high school, but I’m really just not a sportsy person. I prefer academics – reading, writing, even a little bit of math and science.
However, if I were an athlete, I would have a serious problem with my coaches or athletic leaders telling me I had to talk to one of them before I was allowed to speak to any of my other classmates, whether that classmate was a writer for The Whetstone, or a speaker on Wesley radio or television.
I suppose the athletic coaches don’t trust that their athletes will say the right thing. I suppose they think everything going through one person will help boost the program the right way.
Then again, maybe athletes will say what’s really happening and it’ll surprise us all, including their coaches. Perhaps what they say might jeopardize the school’s alumni funding.
Who knows why athletes’ freedom of speech and press has been denied?
The new requirement that all athletes must first go to Steven Kramer, the “director of sports information,†before speaking with any Whetstone reporter (or any other media outlet), is ridiculous.
Of course, I am the editor for the Whetstone, so telling my writers that they can’t talk to certain people without getting permission first rubs me the wrong way.
I just won’t do it. I don’t have to do it.
My writers don’t have to follow the rule because I will not be enforcing strict punishment on them – as seems to have been threatened to have been done to some athletes, as reported by some faculty. (See “Athletics rule stirs up student free speech and intimidation issues“).
However, if I were an athlete, I would be wondering why my coaches don’t trust me enough to speak my mind.
And even if they don’t trust me, who cares? Why are they prohibiting my freedom of speech?
I understand that The Whetstone published articles last spring where students, athletes and non-athletes, stated their opinions that football players receive special treatment.
No coach wants their athletes to say that they think another team is getting special privileges, but no opinion can be wrong. All opinions should be welcomed. If athletes state opinions that are upsetting to a coach, the coach should try to fix the problem, not overrule it by making their students go through another person to set-up an interview.
And what happens if Kramer denies the student or the media’s request for an interview? We’re supposed to just keep asking? Who has the right to say that if athletes are willing to talk with The Whetstone or other media outlets about games or anything about athletics that they now have to ask permission?
Are we back in kindergarten where we all have to raise our hands and ask to go to the bathroom?
We are all adults here. We all have rights that are affirmed in our Constitution. How can you tell a student that if he talks about his team without asking permission, “strict consequences will ensue� What do strict consequences really mean?
Obviously, as the editor, I am upset that The Whetstone has to deal with this.
But even more than that, I feel sorry for the athletes who have to deal with coaches who so strictly define who they can talk to, what they can say, and why they are allowed to say it.
I would quit an athletic team, if I were an athlete, just on the principle that I am allowed to decide what I want to say and to whom I want to say it, without having to ask permission or go through any other person.
