Fisk allegations of bullying/hazing

[KathySantoni]

No. I don’t believe retaliation has victims.
It is revenge for acts already bestowed on them.
Tit for tat, an eye for an eye.

So, had someone upset by Jeffrey’s language pushed her causing her to hit her head on a locker and died after you would find that to be justified?

 

[irichluck21]

Will you direct us to any communication from Jeffrey that would make you think she was content playing the victim?

Were you not paying attention when it was happening?

Jeffrey denied she did anything wrong and then later claimed mental health issues because of the fight she had with the team, she even threatened to harm herself. The coaching staff even suggested Jeffrey might be scared or intimidated by her Black teammates.

UCLA gymnasts say coaches told them to be more tolerant after accusing a teammate of using the N-word

UCLA's gymnastics team has been outspoken about racial inequality. But when a team member was accused of unapologetically using racial slurs, coaches failed to act.

www.businessinsider.in

Several UCLA gymnasts accused one of their then-teammates — Alexis Jeffrey — of using racial slurs, including the N-word and epithets against Asian people, according to a Los Angeles Times report. Jeffrey denied any wrongdoing when fellow Bruins confronted the first-year athlete to explain why her use of that language was hurtful, several team members told the LA Times.

UCLA gymnastics prepares for a meet at Pauley Pavilion.Katharine Lotze/Getty Images

According to the report, those same student-athletes then brought the issue to the attention of UCLA gymnastics coaches and representatives of the Bruins’ athletics department. The team was then subjected to programming featuring racism and mental health experts.

But some of the gymnasts on the team — particularly those who are Black — did not feel the administration’s actions were sufficient.

“It seemed like these were things put in place to check off boxes,” senior Margzetta Frazier told the LA Times. “It was performative, and it did not do anything.”

UCLA’s Margzetta Frazier competes on the balance beam.AP Photo/Kyusung Gong

“I know for a fact that myself and my Black teammates suffered greatly,” she added. “We haven’t had training — I would say that for the whole team — we have not had correct training for three months because of the emotional despair and the lack of trust between the gymnasts and the staff.”

The gymnasts also told the LA Times that the programming had not gone far enough to specifically address the racism impacting the team.

They also accused UCLA’s coaches of encouraging them to be more tolerant and supportive of their new teammate because they feared Jeffrey was struggling with her mental health. According to the Daily Bruin, Jeffrey had threatened to harm herself after her teammates confronted her, and the coaching staff suggested that she may be “scared” or “intimidated” by her Black teammates.

 

[irichluck21]

So, had someone upset by Jeffrey’s language pushed her causing her to hit her head on a locker and died after you would find that to be justified?

Completely different scenario.

Don’t be ridiculous in comparing a revenge prank like alleged sardines thrown into a gym bag to someone physically assaulting someone else.

 

[MaryClare]

If Alexis Jeffrey was intimidated by her “black team mates” was that because they are black, or because they were bullying her…

Massive red flag there. It’s effectively blaming Jeffrey for feeling intimidated, and suggesting that she’s racist for doing so

 

[KathySantoni]

From what I have heard Jeffrey had a legitimate nervous breakdown in front of everyone after discovering the bleached clothing, this was after the sardines in oil that ruined her property, mind you this was not a small tin, it was a large container. After her breakdown two of her teammates reported that she was being bullied. UCLA has a specific way of handling hazing so they treated the situation seriously by collecting evidence and interviewing teammates. I’ll say again that I found it interesting that those responsible for the bullying did not speak up as being victims of Jeffrey until after the investigation was launched.

 

[irichluck21]

I’ll say again that I found it interesting that those responsible for the bullying did not speak up as being victims of Jeffrey until after the investigation was launched.

They did speak up. They spoke to coaching staff, the spoke to the assistant to the athletic director, they wrote emails to the athletic director.
Not one person high up did anything.
Sounds like lots of frustration on those that Jeffrey did harm to.
Asked for her to apologize, she refused. It was reported higher up, nothing was done. When it was asked that she apologize in front of the whole team, she announced she was going to LSU. After that Waller and higher ups did not comment other than she left the school, was no longer a student at UCLA, and they could no longer comment.

 

[Dex]

Not asking for you to help me out, just my opionion, well if you cannot deal with that, well euh…I really cannot help you out…,I guess…

 

[KathySantoni]

They did speak up. They spoke to coaching staff, the spoke to the assistant to the athletic director, they wrote emails to the athletic director.
Not one person high up did anything.
Sounds like lots of frustration on those that Jeffrey did harm to.

Was all this before or after the bleach/sardines?

TIA!

 

[Dex]

Long story short… both sides made mistakes, and the staff did not handle this well… they are alle victims, they are all the cause, not one more than the other. It just really annoys me how some played ONLY the victim.
I truly believe people should focus on the person, not the race of that person, it does more harm then good.

 

[irichluck21]

Not asking for you to help me out, just my opionion, well if you cannot deal with that, well euh…I really cannot help you out…,I guess…

The situation progressed further than just singing rap lyrics.
That is not a matter of your opinion, but fact.
It seems you can’t see past that fact and what other issues were brought up by various members of the team in which Jeffrey acted in a racist tone or made micro-aggressive comments.

The rap lyrics are being blamed for everything, when it went much deeper than that.

 

[irichluck21]

Was all this before or after the bleach/sardines?

TIA!

Yes.

 

[irichluck21]

I truly believe people should focus on the person, not the race of that person, it does more harm then good.

Who is doing that?

 

[KristyJ]

Holy smokes, y’all. First of all, it was not just about rap lyrics, and to say it was minimizes the concerns of one side. Threats of harming oneself can be genuine or can be used to get one’s way and it’s impossible to tell how much of each was involved. Second of all, though, should we really be encouraging young people to settle their differences by being mean to each other? Should we really encourage tit-for-tat? That sounds like a very Lord of the Flies situation (which, to be fair, if leadership was MIA that’s not entirely an innacurate read, but these young people are also young adults and should know better). The racism is never okay, but being mean back doesn’t ever solve anything, either. It simply perpetuates an angry situation. It really does sound like the whole thing got way out of hand and leadership was very weak.

 

[MaryClare]

Let’s park the actual content of the allegations for a minute and strip back what actual happened.

Long time assistant coach (male) takes over from program defining “strong female” head coach, fails to control the team and the most socially dominant gymnasts take over and create a “mean girls” environment. Gosh, doesn’t that sound familiar. Except this time, the exclusionary means is not conservative pseudo-christian values.

And I’ll bet you the transfer of Flatley is not unrelated to it either. Alexis Jeffrey clearly said and did things that were offensive and unacceptable. Yes, potentially UCLA didn’t deal with either side very well. But the whole situation has arisen from an environment where bullying, exclusion and intimidation has been allowed to happen.

 

[KathySantoni]

Yes

I love how you speak about the situation with such certitude but in reality you are just going off what you think/hope happened…

 

[KathySantoni]

And I’ll bet you the transfer of Flatley is not unrelated to it either.

You’ve hit the nail on the head.

 

[MaryClare]

Much of what is being taken as “truth” is the account of a parent of a gymnast from a different school, who presumably was informed of it through friendship ties, who then told her her mother, who posted it to social media…

It’s hardly a first hand account

 

[irichluck21]

I love how you speak about the situation with such certitude but in reality you are just going off what you think/hope happened…

You are doing the same thing!!!

I am going off of the accounts I have heard from the gymnasts themselves on podcasts.

Again, Jeffrey has said the minimum about this whole situation, where as multiple gymnasts have spoken out about it.

Multiple gymnasts from the team cut ties with Jeffrey as well.

 

[irichluck21]

And I’ll bet you the transfer of Flatley is not unrelated to it either.

Flatley’s transfer had nothing to do with UCLA situation.

UCLA did not have a scholarship available for Flatley for her 5th year.
If she stayed it would have had to been as a walk on.

The COVID exemption year for limit on scholarships ended and now teams were held accountable and back to a limit of 12 on scholarship.

Multiple teams were interested in Flatley for a 5th year, including Florida, Georgia, and Arkansas. However, Florida did not have a scholarship slot for her.

Arkansas did have a scholarship available, as Morgan Price de-committed from Arkansas to join Fisk in May of 2022. A week later, Flatley announced she transferred to Arkansas.

Jordyn Wieber being a former assistant at UCLA was also beneficial as Flatley knew Wieber well having been previously coached by her.

Norah’s BF relocated to Atlanta, so that was also a factor in not staying at UCLA.

 

[MaryClare]

All true. Except we don’t know that had things been different, she wouldn’t have walked on