It was a male student who took his top off. :dubious: The coach was fired on the spot (in front of his team) by the athletic director. What the hell? I’m only 25 and male athletes frequently practiced without shirts on on hot days in high school. Granted we never did shirts vs. skins in gym class (even when it wasn’t a coed activity), but some boys did take their shirts off when we had to run a mile around the track for the fitness tests. The girls never seemed all the upset about that (nor did the occasional teacher or secretary who “just happened” to decide to eat her lunch outside that day). I’m going to go out on a limb and assume this school doesn’t have a swimming or diving team.
So was his firing justified? Or is the whole policy asinine? Something else?
Per the article - the coach had been warned earlier. Assuming that is true, the firing was probably justified (but handled poorly), although the policy seems asinine.
I think the proper spelling is ‘insane’ rather than ‘asinine’.
What the fuck has happened to America?
Joe
I think the student who took off his shirt should have some consequences. They had been talked to about leaving their shirts on and the one had to be obnoxious and take his off. Did the coach tell him to? Did the coach immediately tell him to put his shirt back on? I can’t tell if it was justified or not because it depends on the attitudes of the people involved. We also don’t know what other incidents have occurred.
I can understand some young girls being uncomfortable around half naked boys; heck, I’m a middle aged married woman and I’m uncomfortable around the neighbor if he comes over only wearing his shorts. For some reason in a swimming situation it doesn’t bother me but everywhere else, yes. Without a shirt and how low some shorts get when a person runs it could get pretty racy.
It sounds like there was a “quien es mas macho” thing going on between the coach and the athletic director.
A me first, I don’t have to do anything anyone tells me to attitude?
I coach high school track and shirtless guys are common here.
Never have had a word of complaint from the girls some of whom work out without a shirt just a sport bra. (We’re getting into the 80s/90s here.)
If the policy was made then that’s the policy but the firing was very badly handled.
Let’s make sure none of those people ever go to the beach, they might get the vapors.
Agreed.
A girl complained? Tell her to STFU and grow up already.
In the Universe where Chimera is God-Emperor of Earth, someone would be paid good money to bitchslap both her and the guy who did the firing.
Utterly ridiculous. I assumed it was going to be girl runners. It didn’t cross my mind this would be an issue if it a male runner.
Total insanity all around.
Not as goofy as it sounds initially, but still kinda goofy.
Same here. My first thought was to wonder why a girl would want to train topless.
I find Zulema’s first response even more bizarre. No shirt in backyard pool is OK, just don’t walk to the front lawn.
This is incredibly stupid. When I was on the track team, the boys frequently ran with shirts off and quite a few of the girls (the ones without boobs at least) ran in sports bras. No one cared. Well, that’s not true. We girls really liked to watch the boys run with their shirts off. I don’t know how they felt about the girls in sports bras since those of us who actually had boobs never took our shirts off.
I sort of understand. At the pool, you expect to see shirtless men. You don’t expect to see shirtless men wandering around anywhere else.
I agree it’s dumb but I can see it happening. When I was in school in the 70s we played shirts and skins. We also had green gym uniforms with gold on the flip side, so if it was too cold you could change to gold.
But if you look at the article you can see it was justified under today’s “rules.”
OK as a person who’s dealt with sexual harassment in the workplace, I can see it spilling over to schools and this is clearly a case where if someone is uncomfortable, and you CAN make a reasonable change you must do it.
But the school is at fault too, for example:
That he was fired, was perhaps justified but you don’t fire someone like that. Anyone with an ounce of brains and decency knows when you let people go you make sure you allow them to keep, at least some dignity
I was all prepared to think what kind of an idiot track coach would let his/her girls train topless. Silly, stupid me.
Bullshit. One person should not be allowed to control any and all discussion and behavior.
Our swim team coach better watch her back.
Girls who think boys shouldn’t be allowed to take their shirts off can solve the problem by staying at home, in a burka.
Textbook examples of how not to question a seemingly stupid policy in the workplace and of how not to handle insubordination.