Agreed. For instance, see:
I thought his story sounded familiar, and the end of that Wiki story confirmed it - that he was on “60 Minutes.”
I don’t need him. I suggested in my first post that I would be reluctant to hire him 30 years from now. And I understand that most people choose punishment rather than remorse. I just remind you that it’s a choice.
BUMP
Arizona declined to take Miller; Bruins offered him an entry-level contract this year; Bruins’ locker room was upset; Bruins rescinded the contract offer.
This was all over the radio waves here in Boston. The Bruins partner with some organizations to support developmentally disabled kids, and this didn’t go over well. Nothing about this went over well. It was ugly and getting uglier so the Bruins cut their losses. No one came out looking good here, including Miller who it appears just issued the court ordered apology and did nothing else to make amends until the Bruins offered him a contract.
My reading of an earlier article on CNN was that a major impetus behind the Bruins rescinding the contract was Gary Bettman declaring that Miller was “not eligible” to play in the NHL, further adding that he couldn’t say if Miller would ever be eligible. But perhaps the Bruins players objected, too. And it’s really bad optics for the Bruins organization. I’ve said before that sports figures and the organizations that employ them need to be well aware that children and young people look up to them, often as heroes and role models.
I’m a big believer in second chances but an NHL contract sounds like too sweet a reward too soon for someone who was charged and convicted of a really horrible act. I don’t know what sort of criminal record the conviction left him with, but Miller might technically not even be admissible into Canada, a bit of a problem for an NHL player.
Agree - too soon and too big a reward for such behavior. Athletes at any age and at any level (not just elite athletes) should take a lesson from this whole sad affair - people watch you on the field of play, but your conduct off the field also matters and has consequences, so don’t be a dick.
That’s a good question. I don’t know the answer, but I would speculate it wouldn’t keep him out of Canada since the conviction was in juvenile court. That would be the equivalent of Youth Court here, and Youth Court records are sealed after a certain time if the young person doesn’t get into further trouble with the law. The law is based on the idea that young persons can rehabilitate as they mature, and therefore youth records shouldn’t be a perpetual record, unlike adults.
On that analysis, it may be that juvenile records don’t act as a bar to entry into Canada, provided there has been no subsequent criminal activity. Pure speculation on my part.
The kicker, of course, is that pro sports athletes have to enter the big leagues young, so “too soon” translates to “never” for potential pro athletes.
While I am grateful that Miller will not be in the NHL and grateful for the Bruins players saying something, I wonder how much of Bettmans’ response was driven by the Kyrie Irving situation.
Another should-one’s-past-be-used-against-them story is playing out in Finland.
Back in 2015 astrophysicist Christian Ott got in trouble at Caltech over “gender-based harassment” (details are murky) and wound up losing his job. He has since been offered positions in his field in Sweden and later in Finland; both offers were rescinded after protests erupted. Ott sued two Finnish academicians who organized an open letter denouncing harassment, connected to a complaint about his job offer in Finland (the Finnish government took charge of prosecuting the defamation case and a decision is pending).
Should this guy be forever banned from working as an astrophysicist because of his past transgressions? It would help to know how egregious the offenses were that he was linked to at Caltech.
Miller’s actions were severe and prolonged enough to justify long-term repercussions even though he was “only” an eighth-grader when they occurred.
He “fell in love with one of his grad students,” and then he fired her for it. He sent her reams of emails/texts harrassing her. Creepy stuff.
I dislike bullies. I understand their behaviour stems in part from a complex milieu of childhood difficulties, personality issues, parental modelling and attitudes, degree of ability to empathize, misinformation, ignorance, trauma and other factors.
One should consider the degree of bullying and certainty regarding the facts, duration, whether efforts to apologize or make amends were made, whether there were penalties, common attitudes at that time, whether this is likely to renn my sun an issue, and other things.
Exactly. Asking if he should be forever banned from working as an astrophysicist is only half the equation.
The other half of the equation is: should young female astrophysicists have to work with him to advance their careers, with his track record of sexual harassment?
I suspect this astrophysicist’s career is over, and the only way he can support himself, besides maybe working at McDonald’s, is by applying for jobs and suing them when he’s rejected.
???
If that’s autoincorrect for something, I can’t figure out what.
I have no idea how “remain” morphed into that.
This is pretty bad reporting. He was convicted of a crime (albeit in juvenile court) and I assume that crime was not “bullying” (I don’t think that is a crime anywhere in the US?)
He actually admitted to assault or some similar crime (I think this would count assault? IANAL. Possibly a lawyer could chime in as to what crime this would qualify as?)
If someone was “bullying” as in they were mean and called someone names, that would be one thing, this is much worse than that.
I’m stunned that there are people in this thread that think theft and drug dealing are worse than bullying.
Given that women are frequently found throughout various job sectors, why limit this to academia? If he’s banned from working as an astrophysicist on account of his history of harassment, shouldn’t he be barred from working anywhere where women might also be members of the workforce?