Beating teams

Beating kids is bad.\nWe all know this. That's why Gary coach Thayer Williamson is charged with three counts of felony battery after allegedly beating 11 of the 12 players on the Melton Elementary School boys' basketball team. \nAccording to the players, Williamson was profoundly upset by the loss of a game Nov. 16, and as a means of discipline, he brought a duct tape-wrapped paddle to practice the next day. \nEach boy allegedly was asked to step to the free throw line and shoot hoops. For each miss, a player would receive a paddling. \n"I'm going to motivate you all," Williamson reportedly told the team. \nAfter being examined by a school nurse, several boys were found to have welts, bruises and swelling on their backsides. \n"I am not teaching no ladies," said Williamson, according to the affidavit. "I am showing them how to be men. I put the paddle to them for losing." \nBut even though there are charges filed against Williamson, corporal punishment is technically legal. \nThe citizens of Indiana are passively condoning this behavior by not pressuring the state government to stamp out corporal punishment in the educational system. By not addressing this issue, violence has a safe haven in the schools' athletic departments. \nRep. David Orentlicher and Rep. Mary Kay Budak are trying to make a change. On Jan. 6, Orentlicher and Budak proposed House Bill No. 1166, which , if passed, would prohibit "school corporation personnel (from) subject (ing) a student to corporal punishment."\nBut if this amendment fails, how can we mindfully say we are against child abuse? \nIncidents like the one at Melton Elementary happen all the time. In today's society, boys are constantly initiated into manhood by being taught that competition and violence go hand-in-hand, especially in sports. Although not all coaches use physical violence against their teams, the feminization of players -- referring to them as "girls" or lacking "balls" -- is common practice. This custom ingrains the notion that real boys don't cry, they don't put band-aids on cuts, and they don't tattle when their coaches teach them a lesson. The attitude not only suggests that women are synonymous with weakness but also that, in order to live up to this contrived masculine gender role, the boys must willfully accept the beatings to prove they are strong.\nMost of the coaches who use this technique probably think psychological or physical abuse are efficient ways of tapping into players' aggression, which will ultimately help them in athletics. But what might have a positive short-term effect on the court or field has only negative effects in the long-term. If the idea that a man must hide his emotions is constantly reinforced, the natural tendency will be for boys to seek an outlet to physicalize their pent-up feelings. This result perpetuates a cycle of abuse, as the boy who was once beaten by his mentor becomes a potential abuser of the next generation of boys. \nWe have a responsibility to acknowledge that these forms of intimidation in school athletics are dehumanizing and antagonistic. It's a double standard to say that child abuse is unacceptable when we are well aware of the verbal and sometimes physical abuse that exists in youth team sports.