Texas Track Coach Beverly Kearney Admits to Same Sex Relationship with Student, Resigns
Yahoo! Sports News reports:
University
of Texas women’s track coach Bev Kearney resigned last week and
acknowledged in an interview with the Austin American-Statesman that she
had an intimate relationship with a female athlete in her program in
2002. Kearney, who won six national championships since 1993, was placed
on paid leave in November as university officials investigated
unspecified issues within the program.
In a statement released Saturday
night, university officials said the relationship was first reported to
the school in October and the school was taking measures to fire Kearney
before she resigned.
It was reported that the former student
involved, now 30, is not being identified but recently reported the
relationship to the university. This happened soon after Kearney was
approved of a new 5 year contract with a $150,000 raise attached. Some
theories are stating someone did not want the coach to receive the new
contract.
The statement from UT at Austin was released about Coach Kearney's now public matter and resignation:
"Coach Bev Kearney informed The University of Texas at Austin
today that she is resigning her position as head coach of the Women’s
Track and Field program effective immediately. Coach Kearney also had
advised the Austin American-Statesman of her decision."
"Coach
Kearney told the Austin American-Statesman that she had had an intimate
consensual relationship beginning in 2002 with an adult, then a
student-athlete in her program, and that the University had begun to
review this relationship when it was reported by the former
student-athlete in late October, 2012. ...
"Based upon
the review, the University does not believe that Coach Kearney had any
similar relationships with student-athletes either before or after the
reported relationship, which began about 10 1/2 years ago and ended at
least about eight years ago. Coach Kearney is a good person and has
been very important to the University. However, she made this terrible
mistake and used unacceptably poor judgment in having this
relationship.
"The University determined that it no
longer was appropriate for Coach Kearney to serve as head coach or to
work directly with our student-athletes and was prepared to begin the
termination process. This was discussed with Coach Kearney recently. The
University told Coach Kearney that we cannot condone such an intimate
relationship, including one that is consensual, between a head coach
and a student-athlete. We told Coach Kearney such a relationship is
unprofessional and crosses the line of trust placed in the head coach
for all aspects of the athletic program and the best interests of the
student-athletes on the team."
Kearney admitted in an interview:
“You
destroy yourself. You start questioning how could you make such a
judgment,” she said. “How could you make such an error after all the
years? You can get consumed (by it) … I didn’t commit a crime, but I
displayed poor judgment.”
The L.A. Times says
Kearney gained nationwide fame after she was partially paralyzed in a
car accident that killed two of her friends in 2002. Thrown more than 50
feet from the vehicle, she suffered extensive spinal injuries but
learned to walk again.
Kearney is the first African American coach to win an
NCAA
national team championship in Division I track and field, and she was
the first African American to serve as a head coach at Texas.
Tainted Teachers Report's Take:
The coach admits her act of poor judgement and never denied it which is
good. There seems to be something behind why this resurfaced after 10
years of not being in a relationship with the former student athlete. It
all recalls the news about
Sesame Street's Elmo puppeteer, Kevin Clash.
After so many years of being involved with some alleged young men, it
came out in the public. The question is why? Where these two prominent
figures in their field still having secret relations with the former
lovers? Were they being blackmailed for some reason at this time? Maybe
it was just time to uncover what was hidden in the dark. Either way,
these things tend to eventually get exposed because that is what always
happens. It can't be covered forever.
We are in a time and era
where people are uncovering abuse or improper relationships because they
can not go on hiding it, for whatever personal reasons they choose. We
just pray that people start using better judgement when dealing with
their professional positions and really think about the consequences,
first.
