OP ED stands for “opposite the editorial page”, so OP stands for “opposite” not opinion.
In real publications like the NYT or WSJ, editorial-like essays written by people other than the editors of the paper are published on the page opposite the editorial page. As editorial-type essays, they contain the writer’s opinion, but you can be sure a real paper like the WSJ would fact check the hell out of the essay wrt any statements presented as fact.
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No, I just lived and worked abroad for years and prefer the spelling.
US teacher, child of teacher, grandchild of teachers and superintendent.
Definitely a lawsuit if this was the official guidance.
Imagine, however, as suggested above that this was a choice this poor kid made, rather than what she was told to do.
Still awful and terribly handled by the adults involved. Really terribly incompetent handling at best if neither the teacher not administrators interceded. Thus demonstrating again why we need all this training and oversight, when even those theoretically trained and tasked to handle bullying and harassment amongst school children fail wildly.
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Thanks for the correction - but in all seriousness, who does not realize that an OP ED is still just someone’s opinion/point of view? And not a factual recounting of every minor detail that is fact checked and re checked and checked again? Opinions are not facts…
Look - I’ve followed this thread closely. I will accept your valid criticism of my first post about this young writer’s letter. I got the timeline wrong. And there are apparently INTRO to engineering types of courses offered in high schools, and I was clearly ignorant about this. My reaction to her letter, and my post analyzing the holes in it was over the top in some respects - I’ll own that. I have a tendency to over analyze everything. It is a personal quirk. One many people find obnoxious and annoying about me… I can accept the pushback on that. It’s fair.
I also understand what you are saying about my post calling into question the veracity of this op Ed… but I actually intentionally avoided calling her a liar. We can agree to disagree as to whether or not that fine point is important/relevant. But I will continue to push back on you or anyone else who decides to post saying that I actually outright called this 17 year old a liar. I didn’t. I posted something that pointed out every single hole I saw in her letter, and every detail that I found questionable. That’s actually different than posting “I think so and so is LYING.”
I also don’t believe I have stated in any post yet that she was “put up” to writing this letter by anyone. I, and others, have expressed the opinion that her letter seems tailor made to please the group of people who are complaining loudly about the MAAP guidelines, and the potential negative impact these guidelines could have on the current way they manage their coaching programs with juniors. Many of the people who are in that group are also in the group who are expressing grave concerns about Safe Sport, and “unfair” sanctions, witch hunts, how professionals will be unfairly injured by all of this, etc. Many of people in both of these groups are influential hunter jumper professionals. Tamburro EXPRESSELY makes an argument in her letter about why it’s a good idea to relax MAAP guidelines… but she does something different from many of the other prominent voices making an argument against adopting these guidelines. She comes at this all from the perspective of a junior who has suffered from abusive sexualized bullying. Additionally, her story is that of a young woman who was unjustly denied an opportunity because she was FORCED to accept and endure ongoing, humiliating harmful sexual harassment if she wanted to avail herself of the opportunity that completing this engineering class represented. After positioning herself as someone with whom many of the proponents of both MAAP guidelines and Safe Sport can empathize and identify with, she goes on to essentially make the case that if not for her direct personal connection to adults in her barn and her coach… a connection that at the time was unimpeded by the new MAAP guidelines… butvwill be curtailed in the future because her parents will need to be involved more closely… she would have been without adequate support when trying to deal with this sexualized bullying in school as a 15 year old.
I see some problems with that storyline and logic. To me, her story does come off as conspicuously and rather uniquely suitable for persuading some of the folks who are currently on the side of supporting these MAAP guidelines and Safe Sport over to the opposite side of the argument, and siding with the folks who want to relax guidelines )or do away with them). After all… Tamburro is a victim. And she claims that because of a direct, unimpeded and unmonitored connection with her coach and two adults who were at her barn, she had important support that she needed when coping with an abusive situation. Essentially, she makes the case that ifvwe want to support juniors who are victims of abuse, we should relax these guidelines (or presumably eliminate them).
I find this logic odd, and the story simply TOO convenient. I don’t know what is wrong with it… but something seems off.
Tamburro does not explain SPECIFICALLY why she did not first reach out to her parents, or the school counselor about this situation. We can all try and infer what her reasons were… but we don’t actually know. She doesn’t share them. Without that information, I bluntly can’t follow or accept the case she tried to make regarding the notion that relaxing MAAP guidelines is a good idea.
Furthermore, Tamburro specifically excludes any information concerning her school’s response, good or bad, regarding this situation. Other than to state that she spent days crying in a counselors office, and was forced to withdraw from this class because of this environment involving graphic sexualized public bullying.
I find this exceptionally problematic. This young woman is known by her first and last name, we all know she’s a resident of Arizona, and we know the name of the barn where she rides, and the town it is located in. It is not hard to then identify the high school she must have attended. Her story reflects incredibly poorly upon the teacher and the high school. She has made an allegation that they failed to control a classroom environment in a pretty basic way, and that she as a young woman was subjected to humiliating and graphic sexual harassment that was emotionally harmful to her. This harassment allegedly caused her to withdraw from an engineering class. A class which I think we all can agree is the sort of course offering designed to create good educational opportunities for kids following high school.
Why didn’t the Chronicle follow up with the school for some sort of comment regarding this story prior to publishing this letter? Tamburro is entitled to express her own opinions regarding MAAP guidelines. That’s true. I also understand others’ points regarding it being unethical for the Chronicle to publish a letter that specifically incorrectly outlines specific aspects of these guidelines. But her opinion is just that, an opinion. To me though, an even more significant ethical concern is whether or not the Chronicle followed up with any of the administration at Tamburro’s high school prior to publishing her letter. Her letter actually states that she was FORCED to drop out of this class.
What does the school say about that allegation? Did anyone from the Chronicle ask anyone who is an official employee of her high school to comment on this story prior to the letter’s publication?
I read a lot of news and op Ed’s. I’m a bit of an admitted news junkie. Things like the letter the Chronicle published are FREQUENTLY accompanied by an editor’s note saying something like, “The Principal and Sophomore counselor employed by the High School Ms. Tamburro attended were contacted concerning these allegations, however, they have no comment a this time.”
So I am continuing to raise a flag about this story until there is some more information about this particular aspect. Perhaps the Chronicle did fact check her story and did request a comment from the high school. Perhaps not. No one knows. I think it was irresponsible to publish the letter without more clarity on that issue though.
I will make a conscious effort to dial down my tone though, because I do actually like having civil discussions on these forums and engaging with people that get me to think more, and think differently. I will accept that my initial post came off as an attack on Tamburro. So I will try again and say that after trying to account for my initial errors… I still see some problems with her story. I do not know what it is that accounts for the issues that jump out to me… but it seems like either information was left out, or the story was exaggerated, or perhaps both. I do get the impression after reading the letter that Ms. Tamburro’s relationship with her coach, these adults at the barn, and her experience and identity as a competitive young rider are VERY important to her. And I for one do wonder if the published letter on some level is an attempt to support and please adults in her life who are important to her…
That’s concerning to me. But I admittedly don’t know that to be the case. I don’t know that at all. It’s just an impression I got. I think others did as well.
I also wonder how Ms. Tamburro’s parents feel about her not choosing to speak directly with them when going through this situation when she was 15 years old… as a mother, I would be very sad if my daughter felt like she couldn’t speak with me when going through something like that, and instead needed to rely on a coach and other adults at the barn for emotional support and guidance. Bluntly… I would feel like I let my kid down in a significant way, and that we needed to work on improving our relationship and trust and communication. That’s me. Maybe her mother feels differently and that’s ok. But if Tamburro’s story is 100% true, that is one reaction I have. The second reaction is that Tamburro’s parents should be following up with the high school. Big time. Because it actually is unacceptable to tolerate that sort of an educational environment. It leads to young people experiencing emotional harm and missing out on important educational opportunities.
So why is there no information about the parents or school administrators… other than noting that they weren’t Tamburro’s first choice of people to confide in? Did they ever support Tamburro? Did they ever attempt to shut down this behavior on the part of these boys? Did Tamburro get an opportunity to try this class again the next year? Did the school offer to remove the W from her high school transcript?
Anyway… just a few things to think about. I get it that my first post rubbed many the wrong way… so I’m trying to be more thoughtful. But I still see some issues.
As to your statements concerning RG, the reactions that you and other friends of his had in the wake of his suicide after these allegations came out in this thread, and how hard it was to take Safe Sports lifetime ban of him at face value without any background information about what the whole case involved… I’m sorry for you all and what must have been, and still be, a painful experience. And I apologize if previous posts I made on this thread were insensitive to that experience. For the record though, the posts I have seen you make, RugBug, are very different in tone than much of what got put out on Facebook. Many folks on Facebook wanted to make excuses for an adult male having a sexual relationship with a minor, using a variety of different rationals. Up to, and including, that young girls would do anything for a ribbon, back in the day. Some of the people who made some pretty extreme public statements seemed to indicate they were aware of some of RGs behavior… but still felt it was excusable. Maybe they actually WEREN’T aware of the extent of the behavior… and once HR chose to speak out, people finally could understand that there were issues they frankly didn’t know. You know better than I what the exact truth of all that is.
But there is still a substantial group of people who are vocally very anti Safe Sport in the wake of his death. There are people who have been thoroughly investigated for sexual offenses involving minors, and in one case even plead guilty to it, who are now on the Safe Sport banned list, yet who are out there publicly commenting as part of the whole group discussing how Safe Sport is flawed. I don’t think I am out of line for having noted this repeatedly, and asking why others don’t ostracize some of these guys. The Safe Sport criticism seems to have snowballed and intensified in the period following RGs death. I guess it’s inevitable. I’m sorry though if the whole situation, and this ongoing thread, is causing continual pain for you and others who were friends with him. I will try to be more careful and sensitive with my posts.
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And yet sexual harassment of women in STEM fields in academia is so pervasive that the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine recently released a study on it, how it impacts women’s graduate studies and careers, and how universities should be improving their practices. http://sites.nationalacademies.org/shstudy/index.htm
Sadly, the push for more women in STEM doesn’t mean that sexism and harassment in STEM don’t exist.
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Yes, an op ed reflects the writer’s opinion. Nevertheless, the anecdote she used to illustrate her opinion needs to be factual, and her representation of the rules she is opining on needs to be factual. It is not OK to attempt to bolster your opinion by embellishing your anecdote or misrepresenting the rules you are writing about. Obviously, I have no way of verifying or falsifying the anecdote. But I do think she seriously misrepresented the facts of the MAAP rules.
I should stop there. But. Once the writer loses me in terms of the veracity of part B (by misrepresenting the actual rules), I tend to be more skeptical of the veracity of part A (the anecdote).
Stating an opinion in an op ed piece does not give you artistic license to misrepresent any of the facts, including the minor details.
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I appreciate your explanation of why you are focusing on the holes that you feel are in her story, but I think you could make a case against her argument for relaxing the MAAP rules without questioning her story.
What if her story did have all the pieces you feel are missing? What if she had said, “I went to my parents, but my dad is very conservative and doesn’t think women should be engineers so he told me that if I was going to keep complaining about it, I should just drop the class. Then I talked about it with my friends in the barn, and they told me that I could file a lawsuit against the school, but I knew my parents wouldn’t support me in that, so I decided to just drop the class.” Would it change your mind about her arguments against the MAAP policies?
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A shame and incredibly unethical aren’t the same, are they?
Also, I’d like to address the idea that what is in the OpEd is misinformation. I re-read MAAP from start to finish, including the mandatory and recommended practices. Below is a breakdown of the specific pieces of the OpEd that list MAAP policies and what part of MAAP seems to cover that. Red text is the writer’s error. Black bold is the portion of MAAP that covers the noted actions/behaviours.
So, while writer is incorrect that she can’t travel alone with the amateur friend to lunch, because it’s not “travel to training, practice, and competition”, traveling to a tack store to get new tack with the trainer could potentially be considered covered.
The ‘travel to lunch’ piece IS part of the recommended components of one-on-one interactions
Also,
Not going to add the MAAP here because I think we all agree this is accurate?
She seems to confuse some mandatory elements vs. recommended elements, vs. who is covered by what piece of the social media and electronic communications.
So, the amateur friend is an applicable adult, but MAAP limits their responsibility to this:
All other mentions of Applicable Adult in this section are concerning the Applicalble Adult with authority over a minor.
Since ‘amateur friends’ have no professional relationship with the minor athlete, all communication is limited?
The piece about initiating and accepting friend requests is muddled. It’s a recommended practice for Applicable Adults with authority over minor athletes to discontinue connections on personal pages and not accept personal page requests unless it’s a fan page.
There is no mention of written parent consent for social media connections.And while the “friending” situation is only recommended, there is no professional reason for an Applicable Adult as noted in #1 of the Application portion (1) Adult members who have regular contact with amateur athletes who are minors; ) to have a social media connection to a minor athlete.
This is true… How much reach SS/MAAP has at home (outside of covered organization and partially or fully covered facitilies) has been of question. Some of the policies clearly limit the reach but others make it appear broader. Additionally, what is the point if horse shows are the only place covered?
I was part of a conversation on COTH that, after multiple readings of MAAP and working through some scenarios, opined the same.
More opinion from the writer, but it’s not far-fetched. If we create a world that all communication and relationships with adults outside of family becomes suspicious, we are limiting options for minors.
I did want to note that earlier someone seemed to challenge the notion that minors and adults can be friends. While there are certainly relationships that get creepy… adults can form strong, and appropriate friendships with minors. they aren’t, or shouldn’t be, friendships that look like peer relationships, but they can exist. They often have an element of mentorship to them. Sure, if an adult is partying with a minor, etc, there are issues. But having strong, caring adults in a minor’s life is important.
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But the fact checking is NOT just about how MAAP guidelines were represented by the 17 year old author.
The author made specific allegations about a situation that unfolded at a high school she attended. The allegations are the sort of thing a teacher in a public school, a school counselor, and a school principal all have a professional obligation to respond to.
The young writer states that she was “forced” to withdraw from the class, and leaves readers with the impression that these professionals at her high school failed in their responsibility to address harassment and abusive behavior in the school. Her specific decision to state that she was “forced to withdraw” from the class is an issue. The authors name was attached to the letter, as well as background info about where she is from. The Chronicle has an obligation to do some fact checking on what actually are serious allegations of a complete failure on the part of the professionals at this high school in terms of some pretty basic responsibilities PRIOR to publishing this letter as written.
Maybe they did look into it all and it checked out. I do not get that impression however. A teacher in a high school who taught a class in which boys were either left unsupervised and proceeded to harass and bully a female student to such a degree that she withdrew from the class and was in tears in a counselors office for days on end? or a teacher who actually was present in a classroom when this sexualized bullying behavior was happening and did nothing about it… well… if either of those things are true, the teacher should be disciplined professionally. And perhaps get additional training concerning classroom management skills. So that this doesn’t happen again to another 15 year old female student.
So what is the story? Why not look into this prior to publishing this letter? What if this whole situation did NOT happen the way Tamburro describes, but the Chronicle published this letter anyway, and the teacher of that class now has to go through an investigation into all this, is temporarily suspended without pay, etc?
Thoughts? It’s sort of a mirror image of what some people have objected to with how Safe Sport operates. Except with Safe Sport, there is a defined process to look into allegations. It maybe a very imperfect process… but it exists. Safe Sport does a very basic investigation into allegations PRIOR to publishing anyone’s name, and placing them on a temporarily banned list. Then, if the initial investigation indicates there is some merit to allegations, the accused’s name is published and they are temporarily banned while conducting an in depth investigation. At the conclusion of that investigation, a decision concerning the appropriate penalty is made. And after that, the accused still had an opportunity to appeal a penalty.
So what basic investigative process happened with the Chronicle prior to publishing this letter about these incidents at Ms. Tamburro’s high school? After all… the teacher and counselor are professionals who work there who probably rely on their jobs for their livelihoods… Ms. Tamburro’s allegations do reflect EXCEPTIONALLY poorly on these professionals. And the high school. There should have been some sort of cursory investigation prior to publishing this letter. To not do so is actually irresponsible.
The lack of any editors note concerning any sort of comment from anyone at the high school? That concerns me. But maybe there was due diligence. We don’t really know for sure though, and some things are definitely odd…
I hope this makes sense.
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Honestly, I’m not sure it really matters. It’s an op ed, the entire purpose of that part of her editorial was to say “gosh some of these protections would have been super wonderful in this instance”. If it is true (and I have no reason not to believe it, nor do I actually care) then yes, such protections would be great. So yay.
Moving on…
She then discusses the MAAP part of the requirement and has an unclear understanding of it in some instances. Now THAT is relevant, and I think I would have been more impressed overall if the there was a fact checking rebuttal by SafeSport/USEF included as part of the op ed, a sort of “yes, this is what the author believes, but this is what the rule indicates” section complimenting the op ed. That probably would have done more to advance the discussion to a group of people larger than this thread (and in all fairness, it might be coming, but it would have worked better as complimentary pieces).
Getting hung up on the first part looks a little witch huntery even if the intentions are noble.
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@Virginia Horse Mom VHM - First, I appreciate your perspective, your tenacity, and how you approach the conversation. Even when I disagree with you, I don’t find you inflammatory. 
I understand your points of concern about the Op-Ed. I don’t share them as I see a different focus. How each person handles an event should be up to them to a certain extent. No one should have the right to make somoene take a stand they don’t want to take…although I do feel you surrender the right to use words like ‘forced’ when discussing. I also note that I wouldn’t have had that opinion when I was 17.
just a note to clarify: I do not count myself among the group of people that identify as RG’s friend. I took one clinic with him. I enjoyed his energy, enthusiasm and what he taught me. I will admit that I stood back for a bit to marinate in my feelings over the situation, where they were coming from, were they accurate, was my brief need to deny based in anything other than the tragedy of suicide and the loss of someone, who in my limited experience, seemed like a good person. Because my experience was so limited, it wasn’t hard to move into acceptance of the accusations
The vitriol on FB is frightening. I may even agree with the need for some SS reform, but overall, I think SS is needed and will help address a problem that has been ignored for far too long.
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@RugBug - On her claim that she cannot go with her trainer to the tack shop, if a piece of track breaks unexpectedly, without written consent from her parents: this is not accurate. She can get in the car with the trainer as long as they bring along a second minor athlete or a second adult. Of the two options she has for riding in the car with the trainer most of the time the two deep option will be the most convenient.
The actual policy is not as restrictive or burdensome as her representation of it. Not OK to misrepresent the rules in order to criticize them. Unintentional misrepresentation? Still not OK.
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I’m pretty sure she meant she can’t go with the trainer by herself without written consent. Which she can’t. There is no misrepresentation. We don’t get to call it that just because there is a provision so she could still go to the tack store with her trainer without written consent…as long as another adult goes as well.
Honestly, I do find the travel pieces a bit restrictive and burdensome. We just had a tween at the barn need a ride home. I could have done it, thought about it, but chose not too volunteer because of SS. I would have had parental consent as it was a group text conversation started by one of the parents, but someone else can do it and save the text, etc.
I’m just sharing some thoughts as an editor who has been in publishing for 16 years…
First of all, COTH has a reputation of being one of the higher quality magazines in the horse world.
As such, an op ed piece should not be published online without some proper editing, including some bare minimum fact checking
For example, an editor should have talked to Olivia and asked about words or phrases that could be misconstrued and then suggested options that would do a better job detailing what Olivia was trying to communicate.
One of the phrases from the op ed that needs clarity is “forced to drop the class.” Did Olivia feel forced to drop the class because of the harassment or was there external pressure to drop the class? I would also want some clarity on the school’s response to the incident, considering that a counselor was made aware of what happened. I would ask what “CPS resources” means, and whether these resources were emotional support and/or brochures/handouts from the CPS social worker or something else? I would probably even find out how CPS social workers are required to handle things like this when they are “off the clock” and not officially representing CPS.
There is a lot of information in that article that could be interpreted as potentially problematic behavior by the school and social worker (not saying that it is, but the op ed is obviously not clear on these points). Editorial staff typically avoid casually publishing information that implies unethical/illegal behavior.
In addition to the above, I would have published sidebars alongside the op ed that quote the applicable MAAP guidelines. In doing so, an editor would have picked up on the inconsistencies between the guidelines and Olivia’s interpretation of them. That may have put a hold on the editorial right there and then. If the op ed is based on incorrect knowledge of the guidelines, that knowledge gap undermines the purpose of the op ed.
Finally, I would have asked for someone from MAAP or SafeSport to provide some commentary, which would have clarified the guidelines quoted in the op ed and perhaps shed some light on how Olivia could work within those guidelines without feeling like she was losing her support system.
How many arguments on this thread would be null if the type of editing described above had taken place?
It’s easy to plunk something down online and “create content.” However, good content creation is based on taking the raw piece (op ed, article, story), anticipating reader questions and potential problems with the language and/or events described, and then doing some fine-tuning to address any issues without losing the author’s voice.
No one of any age, including editors, can edit their own work. It always needs another eye, and that person should determine what the piece is trying to convey to make sure that is accomplished.
With a topic this important and sensitive, editors should either handle articles about it correctly or, if they don’t have the time/resources to do so, not proceed with publication. Sadly, I think in today’s Internet age, it’s just easier to slap a written piece online and let the chips fall where they may than worry about editorial integrity.
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She can go to the tack store with her trainer if
- There is a second minor athlete along
- There is a second adult along , OR
- There is written permission from a parent
This does not seem burdensome or restrictive to me.
She represented the rule as saying she could not go to the tack store with the trainer unless there was written permission from a parent, which is not true, and would be more burdensome if it were true.
That’s a serious misrepresentation of the restrictiveness of the rule, and it’s therefore pertinent to her opinion that the MAAP rules should be relaxed. I am afraid that I will continue to evaluate the accuracy of her statements based on what she wrote, and not based on what someone else thinks she meant to say.
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But you are evaluating the accuracy based on what you think she should’ve had said. You can opine that you don’t like how she said it. But you cannot say she was inaccurate. She wasn’t complete, but she was accurate.
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Actually, I don’t have a strong opinion about her arguments against the MAAP policies. Except to say that I really don’t think anyone is going to get set down or banned or investigated over these issues, unless there is a MUCH bigger underlying allegation or concern that Safe Sport or USEF is investigating. Nor do I think people won’t continue to have meaningful relationships with others at a barn where they all ride. I’m not very worried about either issue.
As a parent, I generally think the MAAP guidelines are a good thing for kids, and will also protect professionals who adhere to them from false allegations of abuse, or situations that are honest misunderstandings and spiral out of control. That’s a good thing for professionals who work with kids. It’s also a good thing for kids. Parents need to step up and not complain about having to function as parents until their kids are 18. I’m a bit mystified by some of the arguments people put forward about some of these guidelines that they find onerous… both coaches and professionals, and concerning parents not being able to be bothered to deal with texts or filling out written permission forms for their minor child who participates in a sport. The guidelines seem straightforward and appropriate to me. And frankly like a good thing for everyone.
As for my decision to come out and question much of Tamburro’s story… I can appreciate that a lot of people find this choice uncomfortable. She is a 17 year old girl. But here’s the thing… [B]her story has been published nationally, and her name, age and where she lives are included. She states specifically that certain events happened at her high school in a specific class, and were handled in a way that I think most of us can agree is really problematic. No 15 year old girl should get bullied in the manner she describes and be forced to drop out of a class in high school because of it.
Does anyone disagree with that? Does anyone disagree that teachers and counselors and a school principal who allowed this to happen, and a 15 year old female student to be traumatized and forced to drop out of a class - well - there should be some sort of professional discipline or st least counseling and additional training provided to all of them so that this situation does not happen to ANOTHER girl at that school?[/B]
So why why is it inappropriate for me not to ask additional questions about this whole story? For the record… I am not a proponent of the “we believe all survivors” mantra. I can, and do, make individual judgements about stories and cases. And I’m sure I get some things wrong. I’m human. If someone chooses to share their story… publicly… and I choose to read it, I think it’s acceptable for me to ask questions about it. Especially if there are parts of the story that don’t make sense to me. Like a high school engineering class. I admittedly was harsh and unfair with my initial post though, and didn’t read Tamburro’s letter closely enough, and had errors in terms of details I focused in on.
Also, in response to your specific question… I still would have issues with her story as written in the published letter, even if it included more robust details about her decision not to involve her parents, such as the ones you hypothesized. Why? Because the situation she describes in her classroom, and the way she leaves out information about what precisely school administrators did in response to the situation, what the teacher did, what everyone failed to do, what happened to the boys who bullied her in terms of discipline… or a total lack of discipline… well… that’s odd, in my opinion. I have shared personal details about abuse I have experienced when engaging in these discussions on these forums. Others have as well. Many of us experienced abuse when we were minors that happened in secret, and were “he said, she said” situations. Many of us chose not to report our abuse because of this sort of situation, which can certainly create feelings of hopelessness. Others have experienced harassment at work by direct supervisors, and had to deal with tough choices relating to continuing to collect s paycheck and advance in one’s career, or speaking up and dealing with inevitable fallout. But Tamburro’s story repeatedly focus on sexism. And a lack of institutions or rules like Safe Sport to support women or girls who speak up when they are suffering abuse and harassment.
Also, her story and situation specifically involve sexualized bullying in a classroom environment. Boys coming up with a really graphic and humiliating song. It had a really negative impact on her apparently. But this wasn’t 20 years ago. This was 2 years ago. There were witnesses to this behavior (she says it happened in the class!). There are rules in most high schools prohibiting such behavior. There are also professional standards that obligate teachers to manage and control the classroom environment so that this sort of thing does not go unchecked.
So why did she feel forced to drop this class? Because of sexism? Was this whole situation actually actively tolerated by the teacher and fellow students? That doesn’t make sense to me. And why does she state that there was there no institution like Safe Sport available to her for support when she was trying to cope with this? Clearly she eventually made her way to a school counselor. To try and make sure I am fair and accurate this time, I actually have gone back and copied her words, from the beginning of her op Ed right after her introduction…
[I]”I am so glad I live in a time where people are encouraged to speak about their experiences and help rid the world of abuse.
I wish a similar resource had been available at my school two years ago when I was forced to drop my engineering class. I could put up with some sexism—it’s pathetic that I’ve learned to do that—but when I found myself crying in my sophomore class counselor’s office several days in a row because of the song the boys made saying that I liked to suck my horse’s … you know, I couldn’t take it any longer. Unfortunately, young women are forced to learn how to face this, and it’s very important that USEF makes our showgrounds safe. I truly believe this program is a step in the right direction.”[/I]
She then goes on to explain what her opinion is regarding the MAAP guidelines, which she may or may not be misinterpreting or conveying inaccurately, and the important role adult friends and her coach played in her life when dealing with this abusive situation at school.
I think it is pretty straightforward and fair to say that that she is implying her school was going to force her to endure this bullying if she wanted to participate in this class two years ago. That’s how I read the opening passage. And I will concede that ugly bullying does indeed happen with kids. But I actually do find it quite unusual that a high school teacher in Arizona 2 years ago would have tolerated this in a classroom. Or that a counselor wouldn’t have followed up on a 15 year old girl experiencing something like this at school. Sexism does indeed exist… and schools and teachers aren’t perfect. But forcing a young girl to put up with this in a classroom? That actually is pretty extreme and monstrous, and I just don’t know of any teachers or counselors in this day and age who would force a student to endure something like this. Additionally, there is a conspicuous lack of specific information about what her school did or didn’t do in terms of following up on the situation. Tamburro just makes some statements about being “forced” to withdraw from the class and being forced to drop the class, and how it is “pathetic” that she has had to learn how to put up with sexism, and how it’s unfortunate that women and girls are “forced” to learn how to face this.
I think it’s valid to take note of this, and ask some specific questions about this story. More importantly though… what questions did the Chronicle ask prior to publication, and did they contact her school and ask for any sort of comment from anyone?
This actually IS important folks. It’s not just me nit picking.
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Thanks for your response. I really value thoughtful discussions with others on these forums when we treat each other with respect and courtesy, and push each other to think harder and consider a different perspective. It is a pretty important thing, in my opinion.
The RG situation is a tragic one, all around. Thanks for explaining where you were coming from. I don’t blame you or others who actually knew him, much less we’re good friends with him, for being rattled by the whole thing. Sheri Moser has a truly admirable comment on HRs Facebook thread recently… honestly… it was elegant and simple and sensitive, and definitely made me respect her.
If she and her her husband can continue to try and wrap their heads around this tragedy, and can continue to try and have a better dialogue about it all (and yes… I’m well aware of Duncan’s early comments. But he seems to be truly trying to be more respectful of possible victims after HR came forward, and also trying to wrap his head around it all. And it’s all very sad) anyways… if they can try and have constructive dialogue? Then honestly, some of the other things that are hanging out there on Facebook and some of BNs posts and arguments?
I have a VERY negative opinion of it at this point.
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It bothers me that some individuals who are staunchly advocating for SafeSport/MAAP are, when faced with a young person who says she has been a victim of sexualized bullying, trying to poke holes in her story and insinuate that the events she described didn’t really happen (She couldn’t have been in any sort of engineering class as a high school kid! If sexualized bullying was going on and poorly addressed by the school there certainly would/should have been a lawsuit! Where were her parents?!) simply because her opinion on a hot-button issue is different from yours.
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Since you went back and printed the letter, where exactly does it say that this episode happened in class? In front of a teacher? The boys could have easily made up a song and been taunting her at lunch, or at the mall, for all we know.
I wasn’t there, so I don’t know exactly what happened. But nobody on this BB was there. So all the continued nit picking seems a bit extreme.
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