Talk about overreach. It seems that a college athletic coach has no trust in his players to make the right decisions regarding firearms, even if they are law-abiding gun owners. Forget the fact that college students are adults.
The Palm Beach Atlantic University lacrosse coach seems to think that because social media posts about hunting—or guns in general—go against his grain, he can impose his belief system on his players. After the athlete, with the social media moniker of duckmanscholl on Instagram, made public one of his posts, his coach responded via text message: “You want to play lacrosse for PBA [Palm Beach Atlantic University], you won’t post pics of your guns and stuff. That’s simple. You want to continue to post this—you don’t play.”
The photos duckmanscholl posted were innocuous. One showed him holding a duck he harvested; another had him holding a holstered semi-automatic handgun.
The player made his choice. He will continue to exercise his First and Second Amendment rights, lacrosse be damned. That said, he also filed a complaint with the university, saying the postings do not violate school policy and implying that the coach crossed the line with his response. The school agreed and said administrators have counseled the coach.
This is not the only case of school employees using their beliefs to penalize students who dare to think otherwise. Just last week, a California high school teacher sent one student who was wearing an NRA T-shirt to the principal and chastised another. Thank goodness one of the student’s has a mother who stood up against the outrageous abuse of authority. The school board agreed.
When are teachers and coaches going to realize that it’s not their place to force their values down the throats of their charges? When a law-abiding citizen is doing nothing other than talking about something that drives them, the authority figures don’t need to get their noses out of joint.
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