AJC > Sports > Blog > Archives > 2008 > August > 13
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Oklahoma had no choice on Jarboe
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
On Tuesday our Drew Jubera did a marvelous job of reporting and telling the story of Josh Jarboe, the former Oklahoma player from Ellenwood. Jarboe was released from the OU program after a cellphone video that contained a number of violent references and a string of profanities made its way to YouTube.
Drew interviewed a number of people who spoke to the fundamental goodness of the kid. I have no reason to doubt their sincerity. I have not met Josh Jarboe. He may be a wonderful kid. The claim is that he was just doing what kids his age do and became a victim of today’s technology. In short, he engaged in behavior that, in another time, would never have seen the light of day.
But I also know when it comes to something like this the fact that Jarboe may be a good person is pretty irrelevant.
Here are the facts:
Jarboe was expelled from high school for bringing a weapon onto the Cedar Grove campus. When approached by authorities he tried to hide the weapon. He had to take online classes to get his high school diploma.
Oklahoma stuck with Jarboe after this incident. Based on their research he was a good kid who made a bad decision. Teenagers make bad decisions all the time. That was a reasonable position to take.
But when Jarboe’s 74-second video hit cyberspace, the entire dynamic changed. Now Oklahoma had a kid who, after almost losing everything because of the gun charge, makes a video that makes references to AK-47s and shooting people in the head.
Head coach Bob Stoops at first supported Jarboe, feeling that what he did was a private event that never should have gone public. But Stoops must know what his players already know: Everything video, sooner or later, makes it way to the internet.
Here is the harsh reality of this situation. This is really not about Jarboe or some kind of clash of cultures or a generational misunderstanding.
This is about the fact that in April of 2007 a crazed student walked into a Virginia Tech classroom building and murdered 32 people. It’s about the fact that there were some signs that the killer at Virginia Tech was prone to violence. But nobody picked up on those signs until it was too late.
What if Oklahoma, knowing Jarboe’s background, had just let the video incident slide? Now consider the unthinkable. What if the ultimate horror story takes place and someone’s child is killed at Oklahoma with Jarboe holding the gun?
Understand that there is no evidence that Jarboe has any tendency towards violence. By all accounts, he is just a normal, talented kid looking for an outlet for his creativity. But again, what kind of person Jarboe is becomes irrelevant in this kind of discussion.
If you run a major university, you simply can’t afford think of the individual in a situation that has this set of facts You have to think in terms of the worst possible scenario and what the liability to the institution would be if it happened. In the context of the massacre at Virginia Tech, Oklahoma had no choice. They had to let Jarboe go.
If we must teach our children anything, it is that they do not live or make their decisions in a vacuum. Every word, every deed is put into the context of the world around them. If you are a football player at a major university, that goes double. Is that fair? Nope. But it’s reality.
Josh Jarboe had to learn that lesson the hard way. Hopefully the lesson he learned and the price he paid won’t be lost on others.
Am I wrong about this? Was what this kid did just harmless fun? Are the adults overreacting here?
You tell me.
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