Honoring Cedar's VETS
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Alisha Pierce, a freshman biology major from
La Sal, escorts Mark Barton to the ballroom stage
to accept an appreciation award for his 15 years
in the SUU Veteran program.
ANNIE BROWN / UNIVERSITY JOURNAL |
Football players
threaten students
By TYLER JOHNSON
UNIVERSITY JOURNAL
The issue of free speech on campus resurfaced when some
nine SUU football players threatened an accounting student
for comments he made in class on Oct. 30 about the team’s
Homecoming loss, a group of students said.
Joshua Carroll, a sophomore from Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.,
was confronted by the freshmen athletes and followed out
of the Sorenson P.E. Building after he made his comment.
The incident occurred after a History 1700 class in which
Wayne Hinton, professor of history, spoke about the presidential
race between Andrew Jackson and Henry Clay.
“When you think you are going to win, and you know
you are going to win, and you lose, that makes the loss
hurt a lot more than if you just thought that you might
win,” Hinton was quoted as saying in class, according
to a statement signed by six witnesses.
After Hinton’s comment, witnesses reported Carroll
said, “Kind of like the Homecoming game.”
After the comment, the majority of the
people in the class, including Hinton, laughed, witnesses
said.
“Watch out, now, there are some football players
in here,” Hinton is reported to have said.
Hinton said the players did not look happy after Carroll’s
comment.
Carroll said after class, the football players —
including Jeff Deptola, a freshman pre-business major
from Anaheim, Calif.; Derek Hood, a freshman physical
education major from Abingdon, Va.; Joseph Kemp, a freshman
geology major from Las Vegas; and Trint Laws, a freshman
finance major from Salina — approached Carroll and
threatened him.
Carroll said the players got within inches of his face
and started yelling at him.
“Next time you make a dumb-a–– comment
like that, we’re going to get all 90 of us and whip
your a––, and it ain’t going to be pretty,”
the players reportedly told Carroll.
Carroll’s sister, Jennifer Carroll, a senior English
major from Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., was with her brother
at the time of the incident and walked out of the building
with her brother after the alleged threats
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were made.
As the Carrolls left, witnesses said, the players followed,
taunting them, they said.
“Hey, p–––y,” the players
reportedly said. “Where the hell do you think you’re
going? Fine, go ahead; walk off with your bi–––!
F–––ing p–––y!”
“I was a little scared at first,” Joshua Carroll
said. “If I knew it was going to be taken this seriously
and hurt them this bad, then I wouldn’t have said
it. But I thought that being players of a really intense
physical sport, they should take a little criticism.”
Laws disputed the witnesses account. He said the football
players did not yell at Carroll but calmly asked him to
refrain from making comments like that again.
“I know our football team is not the greatest, but
you don’t need to say smart things like that,”
Laws said. “It was kind of offensive to us.”
Laws said he believes that not only did
Carroll have the right to say what he said in class, but
the nine football players had the right to express their
feelings to Carroll as well.
President Steven D. Bennion said while the football players
had the right to express their feelings about what Carroll
said, they did it in the wrong way.
“Self-restraint is always a cardinal rule,”
Bennion said. “You have to control yourself. The other
side of freedom of speech is responsibility and it goes
both ways. In grade school, we may have resorted to physical
means, but we ought not do it in college. We all have to
deal with frustration in life and being able to handle it
like a man is part of it.”
After the incident, Carroll asked for help from Mark Justice,
president of Student Association for Free Expression.
“I don’t think anyone thinks (the incident)
is right,” Justice said.
He said SAFE is making a big deal of the situation, not
because the students were football players, but because
they made a threat to another student.
“This has nothing to do with the football team; that
should not be forgotten,” Justice said. “It’s
students using verbal threats against other students. If
any other student came to us with similar complaints, we’d
have the same response.”
Hood refused comment, but said, “As far as I’m
concerned, it’s all bull s–––,”
and threatened to hire a lawyer to keep his name from being
printed in the Journal.
Kemp was unable to be reached about the incident, but said,
“The main reason why the athletic program here is
struggling a little bit, it starts with you guys. You guys
are the reason that we’re not having a good season
because we have no support; that starts with you and it
starts with all the students at the school.”
He also said no threats were made to Carroll’s sister.
Deptola was not available for comment.
Carroll said he does not want the football players to get
in trouble over the incident, he just wants a public apology.
C. Ray Gregory, head football coach, said Carroll’s
probably not going to get his apology.
“What do you want me to do about it?” Gregory
asked. “Did he apologize to them?”
Gregory said while he doesn’t support what the football
players did, he thinks they were just supporting the team.
The best thing for Carroll to do is stay away from the players
from now on, the coach said.
“People on campus get in arguments all the time, do
you see their names in the paper?” Gregory asked.
“If you get a better story, come see me.”
Although Gregory said he feels there’s nothing he
can do about the incident, he said he will talk with the
players and tell them to stay away from Carroll.
Bennion said he is not sure if there’s a punishment
for students threatening other students on campus, but if
the football players hurt Carroll, it could go to civil
court.
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