FLN: I’ve pretty much kept politics completely out of FLN coverage, but this one did hit the national media and has a definite Florida connection to it, so I’m linking to it for readers to see what is going on. Prior to coming to Oberlin, Kim Russell served as the Director of Girls Lacrosse at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida where she oversaw the program and served as the head coach while also managing the program’s camp business.

Oberlin Coach Stood up for Women in Sports. Then Faced Public Shaming from her College.

Lacrosse coach Kim Russell said she felt she was getting ‘burned at the stake,’ subjected to public humiliation for sharing her point of view.

by Ingrid Jacques, USA Today, August 29th, 2023

Excerpt:

In March 2022, Kim Russell watched as Penn swimmer Lia Thomas won the 500-yard women’s freestyle, becoming the first transgender athlete to win a Division I NCAA championship.

Russell, the head women’s lacrosse coach at Oberlin College and an athlete herself, felt it was unfair to the other athletes, who had worked so hard to be there. Thomas had competed on the men’s team in prior years. 

So when a friend posted on Instagram in support of swimmer Emma Weyant, who lost first place to Thomas, Russell shared the post on her personal page. 

That’s when the coach’s problems began. 

A student-athlete saw the post and sent it to Oberlin’s athletic director. 

The next day, Russell said, she sat in the athletic director’s office, getting chastised for taking a stand on what she saw as the integrity of women’s sports. That began a series of meetings with administrators and student-athletes on Russell’s team. 

Russell said she felt she was getting “burned at the stake,” subjected to public humiliation for sharing her point of view. 

Read the rest HERE