I was not aware of the institutions right to coerce a statement from a student. I always told my children to never say anything until they consulted with me regarding any matter that might have serious consequences. I doubt that they always followed my instructions, but they will tell you that I did tell them to. They are adults now and out from under my control so they don't have to report those things to me, but I can tell you that one child when confronted with a serious situation called her father first before contacting anyone else.
I think Duke has some serious problems if they actually instructed the Lacrosse players not to contact their parents. That is very dangerous interference in the parent/child relationship, I believe.
Look, in the Duke case, it is a matter of taking bad advice from a trusted advisor (all the boys are considered adults). In the case of your children under the age of 18, you'd better believe the school administrators can force a statement.
I wouldn't say a word if this really kept our schools safer, but what it has done is criminalize behavior that could be dealt with through punishment and the nut cases are still walking in with AK-47's. It isn't working -- at any level and it has opened the door to these obvious bogus charges being lodged against innocent people who are simply trying to cooperate and wind up being public enemy No. 1.
I'm not only concerned about "rich white boys". If it's this bad for them, how much worse has it been for poor disadvantaged kids who don't even have parents to call. This is crazy, and my son's black friends say it goes on all the time. When I was a kid, if someone hurt my feelings or rejected me, I sucked it up and in time got over it. Now, you'll be arrested.
This case was exactly like our son's. Ms. Roberts admits she alluded to the "white" boy's genitals. Race was introduced by the true racist first -- same as in our case. My son never said the N-word, never responded with a racial epithet, was accused a saying he would "Shank (her) black ass," had to come home and ask what "shank" meant because he'd read it in her statement -- and he's labeled the "racist jerk". Go figure -- then forced to explain his words, words he never said -- can you see where it went?
It might depend on what contractual obligations Duke had, rather than it being a parent-child interference since I believe they were all 18 or older. In either case, it was certainly the wrong thing for Duke to do.