This has been a question that really doesn’t have a right or wrong answer, just a matter of opinion. If someone leaks something said in private to the public should you be punished for it?
In certain legal instances you can. If I text my friend that I murdered someone, obviously that can be used against me in a court of law.
But, what if I am just being a racist and also happen to play a sport? According to St. Louis University, you are protected against being punished in that instance.
According to Deadspin, a group text message was sent out with a lot of racist comments about President Obama. It was reported, but the athletes won’t be punished and here is the reason given.
“If I were to directly state to you, ‘You suck because of all of your social identities that God gave you.’ That would be wrong. That would require some adjudication,” said Hicks. “We also need to respect laws. This was a private conversation, or at least the perception of private between in-group parties.”
The former team manager of the baseball team who reported the message Brenden Twomey, has been harassed since everything went down.
So, once again the question begs even if someone is being a racist, homophobic or etc, should they be punished if the racist vulgar language was done privately?
While you ponder that, flip the page to see the group text message and what was said about President Obama.