Hot Stove: UNC Basketball

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Those were the rumors

and I always assumed something along those lines given how quiet it was kept

Sort of surprising he was given the opportunity to return to the team
 
UNC-Chapel Hill suspended men’s basketball player Zayden High from the university last semester after finding he violated the campus policy on sexual exploitation, according to documents and correspondence reviewed by The News & Observer and interviews of those involved in the case.

High filmed another student without the student’s consent during a sexual encounter between them last year, the student told The N&O. The N&O confirmed the student’s account of the incident through additional interviews with five people who had knowledge of the situation.

The student felt “validated” and “relieved” when UNC’s Equal Opportunity and Compliance Office found High responsible for violating the university’s policy on sexual misconduct in late August, she told The N&O.
 
finesse said:
Stupid kid. He's been punished, the victim seems satisfied and at least the sex seems to have been consensual. I'm okay with him being back as long as he's on a fairly short leash, so
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GoHeelsweeeehoooo said:
It doesn't sound like the victim is satisfied to me
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Rumor was he showed it to others people. So I think it’s fair to say she has an axe to grind. That is an awful idiotic thing to do and I’m not sure he deserves it especially if the victim is against it.
 
Calheel said:
It sounds like the victim went to the N&O as soon as she learned Zayden was back on the team.

If she can't get the justice she wanted, she at least wants to embarrass Zayden and the team for letting him back on.
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Honestly, he should feel deeply embarrassed. I hope he understands how fucked up it was and is able to grow from it, regardless of what happens to him with the team.
 
GoHeelsweeeehoooo said:
It sounded to me that she initially was relieved until she found out he was still using the basketball facilities and still getting free meals as an athlete
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Yep, the victim and her family seem mostly upset that he wasn't fully removed from the school and program - using facilities, eating at the training table, being caught on video with the team at a practice (although Carolina denies that he was participating in practice) - during the periods where they feel the EOC ruling says that he should have not have been allowed to participate in those things.

UNC and Carolina Basketball may be technically correct by the letter of the law and their own rules (the article doesn't make that clear), but I think this is going to be a big black eye for both the school and the basketball program in the court of public opinion.

Here's the link for anyone who wants to read the entire article (it is long): https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article305387756.html
 
TarSpiel said:
Yea, kind of hard to understand why they kept him. Seems significantly worse to me than PJ smoking some weed.
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That was Will Graves who got kicked off the team for smoking weed. PJ got kicked off for accepting improper benefits.

They are both products of Dudley High School in Greensboro, so I could see how one would mix them up. Funny enough, I had a dream last night that I was hanging out with Brendan Haywood, another Dudley product.
 
Not sure if this is a hot take but I think how the program handled the Zayden High situation was pretty sketchy in hindsight. Understand that some of the details need to be kept under wraps for the sake of the victim when something like this happens, but even with that in mind I feel like the reporting was unusually vague. A lot of the speculation I saw is that this was maybe related to academics but in the back of my mind I was always wondering if it was something more than that.

Seriously, this isn’t the first time a player from a high profile team has gotten into trouble for sexual assault, but I can’t remember many instances where the reason for the suspension was kept under wraps for so long.
 
Peppers49 said:
Not sure if this is a hot take but I think how the program handled the Zayden High situation was pretty sketchy in hindsight. Understand that some of the details need to be kept under wraps for the sake of the victim when something like this happens, but even with that in mind I feel like the reporting was unusually vague. A lot of the speculation I saw is that this was maybe related to academics but in the back of my mind I was always wondering if it was something more than that.

Seriously, this isn’t the first time a player from a high profile team has gotten into trouble for sexual assault, but I can’t remember many instances where the reason for the suspension was kept under wraps for so long.
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Or the Jalek Felton situation.
 
Peppers49 said:
Not sure if this is a hot take but I think how the program handled the Zayden High situation was pretty sketchy in hindsight. Understand that some of the details need to be kept under wraps for the sake of the victim when something like this happens, but even with that in mind I feel like the reporting was unusually vague. A lot of the speculation I saw is that this was maybe related to academics but in the back of my mind I was always wondering if it was something more than that.

Seriously, this isn’t the first time a player from a high profile team has gotten into trouble for sexual assault, but I can’t remember many instances where the reason for the suspension was kept under wraps for so long.
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I think all universities, not just UNC, are struggling with privacy rights with regard to these cases. FERPA greatly protects student records from public release but the Cleary Act requires certain records be released and FOIA laws require certain documents be made available upon request.

There is a feeling among universities that they are violating one Federal law if they release information and another if they don’t release it, so they feel stuck between a rock and a hard place. So many only release the minimum amount of info absolutely required and only in the required annual reports unless a particular case represents a known on-going threat to the university population.

I have had the professional opportunity to work adjacent to this system at a non-UNC system school and it was pretty surprising to me how much effort was being spent trying to just determine the practical effects of various Federal laws on these kinds of cases, much less actually creating and operating a system at the school to address real cases. This is especially true in situations where the victim does not want to engage law enforcement or legal avenues.
 
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