Attorney Curtis Bowe refers to the basketball program at Ooltewah High School, out of which a young player was allegedly assaulted and sodomized by three of his senior teammates, the oldest of whom was 17, as “Men's Basketball.”
My dear Aunt Shirley, the more outspoken of her generation of the family, might rip loose with “Oh, pshaw.” Granny raised all the girls to be ladies. My initial response was more akin to that of Kurt Russell's character in the movie Tango & Cash when the judge pronounced sentence upon them.
But perhaps attorney Bowe just hasn't spent much time around real men, after doing a Google search for some he's represented over the years. To begin with, these boys at Ooltewah are not men. They may have short and curlies, but that does not a man make. Every man, every real man, I know supports himself, and his family if there is one. These three boys are nothing but someone's precious progeny who've been allowed to run roughshod over others, and apparently for a while. They most certainly aren't men. They've accomplished nothing in life. They've built nothing. Their only claim to fame is breathing in good air then exhaling CO2 and other noxious gases that drive the greenies crazy.
A young boy's innocence was stolen from him, violently, viciously, and all those in authority can think to do, after having lawyered up, is call for the community to allow the system to work its course… as they conduct closed-door strategy meetings trying to figure out how they're going to pull soft body parts out of the wringer this time. This is tantamount to accusing a woman, or young girl, of being the cause of her own rape. With attorney Bowe assisting all of them in covering their mess like cats in a litter-box.
But is this really anything new at Hamilton County schools? It wasn't too many years ago we had a riot at Tyner HS, with at least one teacher laying hands on a cop, not in a healing manner, and the board of education wasn't notified for quite some time… and only then when it came to light through other sources. Teachers have been assaulted. Other students have been assaulted. A girl was assaulted in the band room, and a teacher in the doorway of her classroom, at Hixson HS. Teachers and studii have been threatened, and nary a one of the perpetrators has been taken to task for their behavior choices. I'm aware of a student that was criminally charged for assaulting a teacher, fairly recently, but how many threats go unreported and unpunished?
It appears the rock that's been on Pandora's Box the past few years has been blown plumb off that baby with this Ooltewah student's alleged assault.
We spend more money per student in Hamilton County than any other district in Tennessee, except Memphis. When do we begin getting our money's worth? When do our children and grandchildren have a place they can truly feel safe going to learn instead of where all the criminals are… because it's better for them to be in school with highly paid babysitters than on the streets?
Mr. Andre Montgomery failed the taxpayers of Hamilton County. He failed as a coach. He failed as a mentor to this team, someone for them to look up to as an example of strength and righteousness. He failed the parents of his team members. He most especially failed the boy who was allegedly assaulted while in his charge. But Ooltewah High School principal James Jarvis and athletic director Jesse Nayadley have likewise failed in their fiduciary responsibility to all of these too, haven't they. Thuggish behavior doesn't occur in a vacuum. The response needs to be swift, sure, and without question that choices have consequences.
But men, real men, don't knowingly put children at risk do they.
Alleged tough guys…
Yeah… this (really) stinks…
Royce Burrage, Jr.
Royce@Officially Chapped.org