Swim-team ritual ended after outcry

Mercury News ^ | 1/28/03 | Connie Skipitares

[Phantom Lord]

Campbell officials this week quickly put an end to a longtime ritual among city-sponsored swim teams. Teenage boys and girls will no longer hold coed ``shave-downs'' at the Campbell Community Center.

The action followed complaints from parents of girls on a 6- through-8-year-old swim team who walked in on teenagers shaving themselves and their teammates in the girls locker room. The teen boys and girls, 14 through 17 years old, are members of the Campbell Wavemakers Senior Division Swim Team.

[Phantom Lord]

As a former Jr. High, High School, and College swimmer I must say that the "Shave Down Party" was one of the most looked forward to events of the swim season.

It also provided many of us an opportunity to do some crazy stuff with our hair that our parents wouldn't dream of letting us do the rest of the year. I had some crazy hair for the divisional finals that would then be shaved bald for the state championship.

My favorite though was probably the shark mohawk I had my senior year. I fully credit it with producing my championships in 3 events and 2nd in a 4th event.

My father was also a Special Olympics coach for 25 years and our neighbor worked for P&G. He gave my father a couple dozen Mr. Clean T-shirts that said "Mr. Clean supports Special Olympics". He couldnt give him to his kids because the rules considered them a corporate endorsement if the kids wore them to offical activities. So my father gave them to the swim team to wear with our bald heads. I still have mine.

[Phantom Lord]

Harmless fun bump

[dep]

nice to know that not much is going on in campbell, so that people (and, no doubt, their lawyers) have time to devote to getting outraged over things like this.

dep

[joesnuffy]

Yep nothing like a little traumatizing 8 yr old girls...who have been taught modesty....
Boys do not belong in the girls locker room ......end of story

[Desdemona]

I thought this was a "get together and clog a hotel room drain" ritual. The guys on all the teams I was on NEVER shaved down in front of the girls.

[AppyPappy]

Boys do not belong in the girls locker room ......end of story

Yup. How easily people miss this.

[ClearCase_guy]

one male teen ``who found the event stimulating.

Two questions:
Only one?
Exactly how much are they shaving? Seems they may be more thorough than required.

[Desdemona]

Exactly how much are they shaving?

You want to have razor burn when you hit the water. Honestly, you feel the water better, so everything not covered by the suit, except eyebrows, comes off. Girls do object to head shaving, though. That's why there's laytex caps.

[Constitution Day]

Dean said one parent told him that his daughter, who is 8, glimpsed one male teen 'who found the event stimulating'.

I don't know, PL.
At first glance this seems innocuous (sort of), but as the father of a little girl, I would not want her walking in to see this guy's, um, aroused state.

It seems like the whole story is not being told here. Am I wrong?

[Phantom Lord]

That sentence is confusing me as well. Who found what stimulating? Did the girl find it stimulating? The guy? Who?

They should have gotten out of the locker room on time as they have in years past.

[ClearCase_guy]

everything not covered by the suit, except eyebrows, comes off

That's really the point. The whole event is wrong, let's be clear on that. BUT if they're shaving each other, and trying to shave everything not covered by the suit, than the aroused state of one boy might not be apparent. But it was apparent, which leads me to think that there may not have been a swimsuit involved. That's quite a ritual for High School kids.

[goodieD]

Boys in girls locker rooms..what could you have missed ?? Harmless fun? only for pedophiles.

[Desdemona]

When I was swimming, the guys would get together well away from us girls and clog a hotel bathroom sink. You have to have somebody else...nevermind. Why they're doing it together is a DARN good question.

[TRY ONE]

* Were the cold showers turned on for the Grand Finale?

* Every teenage boys' dream: A girl in a bikini lying on a table holding a can of whipped cream! I bet the swim team was larger than the football team.

[Phantom Lord]

I do not find any indication from what is written that the boy was "in an aroused state". I may be reading it wrong, but that is not what I got from the sentence.

[Phantom Lord]

Female swimmers do not wear bikinis.

[Desdemona]

Female swimmers do not wear bikinis.

When not in racing suits, yes they do.

[Phantom Lord]

I think it is safe to assume that they were in their racing suits.

[Phantom Lord]

Teenage boys and girls getting together are not a bunch of pedophiles.