{"id":133323,"date":"2023-08-30T08:17:59","date_gmt":"2023-08-30T12:17:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/?p=133323"},"modified":"2023-08-30T11:48:47","modified_gmt":"2023-08-30T15:48:47","slug":"oberlin-coach-burned-at-the-stake-for-lia-thomas-criticism-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/oberlin-coach-burned-at-the-stake-for-lia-thomas-criticism-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Oberlin coach &#8216;burned at the stake&#8217; for Lia Thomas criticism: report"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em>\u2018It is my job to be a voice for everyone who is too afraid,\u2019 lacrosse coach says<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A head coach investigated by her liberal college for questioning transgender swimmer Lia Thomas&#8217; victories spoke out in a new short documentary.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is my job to be a voice for everyone who is too afraid, who needs to keep their job,\u201d Oberlin College lacrosse coach Kim Russell said in the eight-minute <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/IWF\/status\/1696554933368086770\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">video<\/a> produced by the Independent Women\u2019s Forum, a conservative policy institute.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\ud83c\udd95BREAKING: Head Women\u2019s Lacrosse Coach at Oberlin College is breaking her silence in an <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/IWF?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@IWF<\/a> documentary after being \u201cburned at the stake\u201d for her support of single-sex sports &amp; speaking out against allowing men in women\u2019s sports. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/n1MPhiM4D5\">https:\/\/t.co\/n1MPhiM4D5<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/WgD57sAYxR\">pic.twitter.com\/WgD57sAYxR<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Independent Women&#39;s Forum (@IWF) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/IWF\/status\/1696554933368086770?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 29, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is scientific that biologically males and females are different,\u201d Russell said in the documentary.\u00a0\u201cI don\u2019t believe biological males should be in women\u2019s locker rooms. Where is the MeToo movement? What happened to that?\u201d she continued.<\/p>\n<p>One of Russell\u2019s lacrosse players reported the coach\u2019s spring 2022 Instagram post to Oberlin administrators after Russell called swimmer <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/she-took-first-social-media-comments-say-uva-freshman-is-best-swimmer-not-lia-thomas\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Emma Weyant<\/a> the \u201creal winner\u201d of the March 2022 500-yard NCAA championships freestyle, according to a Tuesday <a href=\"https:\/\/www.iwf.org\/2023\/08\/29\/oberlin-college-administrators-caught-on-secret-recording-reprimanding-head-lacrosse-coach-for-defending-womens-sports\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">news release<\/a> from IWF.<\/p>\n<p>Weyant, a University of Virginia swimmer, had come in second behind University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas, a male.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe report triggered a series of lengthy disciplinary meetings and a full-fledged character assassination campaign against [Russell] involving Oberlin faculty and the women\u2019s lacrosse team,\u201d according to IWF.<\/p>\n<p>Russell, who has been coaching for 27 years, said she felt \u201cburned at the stake.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In a series of disciplinary meetings with athletics directors, administrators and student athletes, Russell was labeled \u201cunsafe\u201d and told to apologize, she said in the documentary.<\/p>\n<p>Russell said she recorded every meeting. In one clip Oberlin Senior Associate Director of Athletics Creg Jantz can be heard saying &#8220;[i]t&#8217;s acceptable to have your own opinions, but when they go against Oberlin College\u2019s beliefs, it\u2019s a problem for your employment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Russell felt pressured to recant and began to draft an apology letter as requested.<\/p>\n<p>However,\u00a0 she added, \u201cI started to write one and then thought, \u2018No, I\u2019m not writing a letter of apology. I\u2019m not sorry.&#8217; &#8221;<\/p>\n<p>One of the most difficult parts of the ordeal was losing the close relationships she had with some of her lacrosse athletes, Russell said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat just broke my heart because you love these kids like they\u2019re your own, and when they hurt, you hurt, too,\u201d she said in the video.<\/p>\n<p>While Russell still has her job, she said knows she could lose it for speaking publicly.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDo I believe I&#8217;m at risk of being fired, of having a storm hit me?\u201d Russell said. \u201cYes. Am I ready for the storm? Yes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>MORE: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/lia-thomas-teammate-reveals-how-penn-silenced-dissent\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Lia Thomas teammate reveals how Penn silenced dissent<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>IMAGE: Independent Women&#8217;s Forum<\/p>\n            <div class=\"article-truncate-control\">\n                <button class=\"show-complete-article\">\n                    Read More                <\/button>\n            <\/div>\n\n        ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u2018It is my job to be a voice for everyone who is too afraid,\u2019 lacrosse coach says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1334,"featured_media":133325,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1361],"tags":[26582,14237,48720,8651,44403,5506,50796,50795,43461,655,32965,5579,4566,15963,1969,16878,1058],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/KimRussell72.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2Oh4L-yGn","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133323"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1334"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133323"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133323\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":133343,"href":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133323\/revisions\/133343"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}