Duke Lacrosse Coach Resigns, Season is Canceled, Amid Scandal
DURHAM N.C.
A lacrosse player’s e-mail rant about killing and skinning strippers in his Duke University dorm room has started a chain reaction resulting in his coach’s resignation, the season’s cancellation and an internal probe into the university’s response to alleged violence by athletes.
Wednesday’s cascade of events was the latest fallout from allegations that three members of the lacrosse team raped a stripper at an off-campus party on March 13.
No charges have been filed in the case, but sophomore Ryan McFadyen, 19, the player who wrote the e-mail, has been suspended, and Duke President Richard H. Brodhead promised a “very, very serious self-study” of campus culture.
“I pledge that Duke will respond with appropriate seriousness when the truth is established,” he wrote in a letter to the community.
Students and townspeople have marched almost daily since the alleged attack on the stripper, a student across town at North Carolina Central University. The woman, who is Black, claims three White players pulled her into a bathroom and assaulted her.
