Brooklyn, Much of your post was thought-provoking. ( But I think your equating the word savage with racism is silly.) What you said about mentoring Jevon and being merciful to him, trying to do what Mother Seton would do resonated with me. I am all about trying to heal people, even the most troubled. The problem is what has being going on with this team for the past seven or so years. We have had players that were deeply troubled and received a tremendous amount of support, but did not respond positively, instead causing confusion, embarrassment to the team and university, harm to other students, harm to themselves, draining of the coaching staff and other resources, ruination of the team...
Sometimes helping a troubled young person takes decades rather than years and more resources than a university or sports program can provide. Discerning when to go out on a ledge and when to refer a person out for appropriate help elsewhere is difficult. But hanging onto a person who is not ready to change and grow is co-dependent and foolish. Jevon had a lot of problems at KSU, at least one previous altercation at SHU, and now this. When do you start to take into account the good of this team? Most, if not all, of the kids on our team come from disadvantaged backgrounds. They are trying to make something of themselves and succeed on the court and in the classroom. But Jevon could potentially do great harm to those efforts.