Wednesday, September 14, 2005

The media seems to have forgotten about Ken Carney, Tom Diasparra, and Phil Sofia, the 3 jocks from Mepham High School who abused other boys in a football camp. There has been no reports on the status of their "punishment", whether they are free, or whether they are back on Long Island. Here is a copy of the Grand Jury report that describes in detail what they did while other football players watched and laughed. DO NOT click if you have a weak stomach!!

Here is the Newsday archive of Mepham High School stories, although Newsday does not print the names of the 3 . My concern is not just where are these guys but has anything really changed?? Do schools monitor anything better than they did before this incident? Will the next football players to sodomize or beat get the community support as these jocks did (at first) or will the town actually see them as criminals to be punished? Do coaches get supervised any better today, either here on Long Island or elsewhere? Are there still people out there that see (men's) sports as so important that it takes precedence over education?

Here is some good commentary from Don McPherson who leads the Sports Leadership Institute:

"...Long Islanders are far too familiar with the case of three boys being sodomized by their teammates at Mepham High School in what people continue to call a "hazing" ritual. The fact is, these boys were not being "hazed," they were being sodomized. However, this difficult word and our inability to confront the "football machine" have distracted us from dealing with the reality of the problem."

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