Duke lacrosse: A disturbing Chronicle story

While researching this morning for future posts, I came across this news story, “Men's lacrosse team faces rape allegations,” published Mar. 27 in the Duke student newspaper, The Chronicle.

A portion of the story disturbed me. I think it will disturb many of you.

As we prepare to read it, let’s keep in mind all the help the lacrosse captains who rented the house on N. Buchanan Blvd. gave police on Mar. 16, including helping them locate students who were at the party, voluntarily submitting to hours of police questioning and rape kit testing at Duke Hospital.

Let’s also remember the 46 players ordered to submit to DNA testing and strip to the waist for lineup photos were told by attorneys they could contest the order but not a single one did. All denied each of the many versions of the accuser’s “story.”

One other point to bear in mind as you read the article excerpt: At the time each of the three Duke administrators - President Brodhead, Senior Vice President Burness, and Vice President Moneta - were quoted in the Mar. 27 story, they knew the information you and I have just reviewed. Now from the Monday, Mar. 27, Chronicle story:

John Burness, senior vice president for public affairs and government relations, said Sunday that he has not talked directly to the players, but he noted that there are "two very different versions of what went on at the party."

"My understanding is that some people who have talked to the players have suggested it would be very much in their advantage to get their side of the story out in one way or another," Burness said.

Brodhead released a statement Saturday urging individuals "to cooperate to the fullest with the police inquiry while we wait to learn the truth."

"Physical coercion and sexual assault are unacceptable in any setting and have no place at Duke," Brodhead said. "The criminal allegations against three members of our men's lacrosse team, if verified, will warrant very serious penalties."

Parents of some members of the team met with University representatives Saturday afternoon.

"The meeting was about keeping the parents informed and focusing on the consequences for their kids and the way we will proceed pending the conclusion of the investigation," said Larry Moneta, vice president for student affairs.

He added that the parents were frightened and nervous for their children.

Does anyone who’s just read the Chronicle excerpt have any problem understanding why Brodhead says we shouldn’t go back and look at the past?

If you were Brodhead and you wanted people to believe you'd been fair to the lacrosse players back in March, would you want people reading, discussing and asking questions about what you said on that Mar. 25 Saturday?

Remember that morning the Raleigh News & Observer published its front-page, five column wide “anonymous victim” interview story which began with the N&O referring to the players “wall of solidarity” which the N&O said authorities had “vowed to crack.” The story ended with Duke Law Professor Paul Haagen, Brodhead's good friend and colleague, citing “research” he’d found which justified, Haagen believed, his opining for N&O readers on lacrosse as a helmet sport which produces “violence?”

And look at what Moneta says about the parents: They “were frightened and nervous for their children.”

No doubt they were. But is that all, Vice President Moneta?

Are we to believe there were no parents speaking out who were critical of the university? And were there no questions about what Haagen had done?

Are we to believe that no parent asked why Brodhead and other top university officials weren't speaking out and criticizing the bias, inaccuracies, omissions and inflammatory language in the N&O’s Mar. 24 and 25 stories, which cast the accuser as “the victim” and framed their sons as her victimizers among whom were three gang-rapists and their teammates who were remaining silent while police tried to identify the gang-rapists?

What Moneta is quoted as saying about the meeting amounts to what many parents of small children call "a night-night line."

Folks, can you see why the portion of the Chronicle story disturbed me? I hope it disturbed you, too.

And I hope we all let President Brodhead and the rest of his administrative team know we want answers to questions about what they did regarding the Hoax, especially their treatment of the Duke students who are innocent victims of a vicious hoax which many Duke trustees, administrators and faculty enabled through silence, or butt-covering, or, worst of all, exploitation.

Exploitation? Yes, of the sort engaged in by the faculty’s Group of 88 and Professors Houston Baker, Orin Starn and Peter Wood.

The entire Chronicle story is here.