JaWand Blue, left, and Alexander FugueroaThe news out of the University of Miami on Tuesday had to sound disturbingly familiar to the football fans of Vanderbilt University and Calhoun (Ga.) High School.
According to various wire services, two 20-year-old linebackers for the Hurricanes were arrested on sexual battery charges involving a 17-year-old girl who was, according to the police report, “physically helpless to resist.”
Both JaWand Blue and Alexander Fugueroa admitted buying drinks for the accuser, bringing her back to Figueroa’s dorm room as Friday night rolled into Saturday morning and repeatedly performing — you might want to grab the Sharpie or hit the delete button regarding the next seven words if small children are present — sexual acts, including intercourse, without her consent.
The only slightly positive angle to this whole despicable story is that the players seem to have admitted swiftly to the entire crime, which should make putting them away for a very long period of time far easier than most of these cases. And the university immediately dismissed them from school.
But the more pressing question is when is this going to stop? Or at least become far less frequent? When are coaches and school administrators and most of all, most important of all, parents going to stamp out this behavior before it begins?