UCLA, Alexis Jeffery, gymnasts calling out athletic director

[YurchenkoLoop]

Yikes. She should be suspended indefinitely

 

[Jack]

Jay Clark, forever a total garbage human being.

 

[irichluck21]

Can someone post the story here?
I am trying to access it but it told me to disable AD block and now its asking me to subscribe or turn off ad blocker, which is already turned off.

UGH

 

[rue_des_plantes]

I’m just happy UCLA more or less hit, for safety reasons. Whatever the situation or anybody’s feelings, I don’t see how the atmosphere in that gym could have been very conducive to confident, safe preparation.

 

[rue_des_plantes]

Can someone post the story here?
I am trying to access it but it told me to disable AD block and now its asking me to subscribe or turn off ad blocker, which is already turned off.

UGH

Leaving a UCLA program amid apparent unrest within the team, gymnast Alexis Jeffrey has transferred to LSU and will be eligible to compete for the Tigers this season, coach Jay Clark said.

Jeffrey, a freshman from Warrensburg, Missouri, is enrolled at LSU and is in the process of being added to the team as a walk-on, Clark said.

Jeffrey has tagged LSU gymnastics on her Twitter and Instagram accounts. She was with the Tigers at their practice facility Friday afternoon as the team held an intrasquad meet that substituted for Friday’s scheduled home meet with Arkansas. The meet was postponed because of COVID-19 issues within the Razorbacks’ program.

Clark said Jeffrey is the first transfer he’s ever had as coach. He declined to comment further on Jeffrey’s transfer until the LSU athletic department releases a statement. The school had not released a statement as of Sunday afternoon.

Two UCLA gymnasts, seniors Nora Flatley and Margzetta Frazier, posted statements Thursday on Twitter asking UCLA athletic director Martin Jarmond to speak to UCLA’s gymnastics coaches after Jeffrey left the program.

“@MartinJarmond we are saddened that we’ve exhausted every avenue to have this issue addressed and have not heard or seen from you in over three months,” Flatley tweeted. “Please respond to the email I sent you.”

Frazier, responding to an unrelated Twitter message from Jarmond, wrote: “Can you talk to our coaches please”

Attempts by The Advocate to reach Flatley and Frazier have been unsuccessful. Jeffrey is followed on Twitter by LSU gymnasts Haleigh Bryant and Aleah Finnegan, as well as assistant coaches Ashleigh Gnat and Garrett Griffeth.

UCLA team spokesperson Liza David said school administrators have met with the Bruins’ gymnastics team “multiple times” over the past 3½ months. She did not say whether Jarmond spoke to the team previously, but said he would be meeting with the gymnasts early this week.

UCLA coach Chris Waller on Thursday told The Daily Bruin, UCLA’s student newspaper, that he would not comment on Frazier’s tweet nor Jeffrey’s departure from the team.

“I can’t comment on anything with Alexis as she’s no longer a student at UCLA,” Waller told the paper.

David said Jeffrey entered the transfer portal Jan. 11.

A four-star recruit according to http://collegegymnews.com, Jeffrey took part in UCLA’s preseason exhibition meet Dec. 17 but left the team before the Bruins’ season-opening meet last Monday in Minneapolis against Minnesota and Iowa. According to USA Gymnastics, Jeffrey finished sixth last year in the all-around in the Women’s Development Program National Championships and eighth on floor in the senior division.

In October, the LSU gymnastics team was honored in St. Louis with a Musial Award for sportsmanship for welcoming UCLA gymnast Chae Campbell during their competition in the NCAA championships last April in Fort Worth, Texas.

Campbell competed as an individual assigned to LSU’s rotation because UCLA did not advance to the meet. LSU gymnasts learned Campbell’s floor routine and mirrored her moves during her performance. After each routine, Campbell was given a stick crown which LSU gymnasts give to each other after a strong showing in an event.

Advocate sportswriter Reed Darcey contributed to this report.

 

[irichluck21]

Looks like we are getting closer to the truth.

 

[Doug1233]

She should be suspended indefinitely

Do we actually have the facts about what she actually did? Have they been confirmed by Alexis?

 

[Doug1233]

Looks like we are getting closer to the truth.

To me, it seems we are only getting vague indications about one side of the story. I still have literally no idea what even happened, other than Alexis may or may not have said the N word (to whom, and in what context, we don’t know) and didn’t apologize for it.

 

[rlayt]

Margzetta was one of the people there when it happened, whatever the incident was. In lieu of any other first hand reports I think I’ll take what she’s saying that she and her teammates didn’t bully Alexis. And she says they received death threats because of allegations of bullying against them. It implies a number of things we’ve heard from secondary sources are true. They wouldn’t have all of this going on and a top recruit transferring at this time if the bones of the story weren’t real. It wouldn’t make sense.

I’m impressed that UCLA was able to pull off the results they had in the midst of this.

 

[Doug1233]

if the bones of the story weren’t real.

what even are the “bones” of the story.

do we even know for sure if the n word was said AT the black gymnasts or if it was just sung as a part of the rap song?

both not cool but obviously one is much much worse than the other.

 

[rlayt]

It seems that a very offensive word was used. It shouldn’t matter whether it was said or sung. It’s an offensive word. If you are asked about how you said or sang that word then you discuss it. In that case reasonable people can reach a detente or compromise if there was no bad intent.

 

[Doug1233]

But it DOES matter. calling someone the N word, and singing a song where a rapper says the N word, are worlds apart in offensiveness.

We should at least figure out what actually happened before commencing the twitter hysteria pile-on and demanding certain people resign and worse.

Tweets like this are just ridiculous. We don’t even know with any certainty what even happened:

 

[rlayt]

I disagree. Whether singing a word is offensive does depend on who is singing it. A rapper who is a POC calling himself or herself an offensive word is one thing. A white person singing that word can be offensive. And if they are asked not to because it’s offensive then they should listen. It deserved to be questioned and talked about. Reasonable people should be able to talk about their problems with that.

Yeah the Twitterati go overboard.

 

[Sasha]

But it DOES matter. calling someone the N word, and singing a song where a rapper says the N word, are worlds apart in offensiveness.

I agree, but at the end of the day I think the difference is somewhat irrelevant in a practical sense in that both are unacceptable. She was asked by her teammates to stop, she didn’t. Given your earlier comments in this thread (the ones that were moved to a separate thread) I’m sure you can appreciate why this is problematic.

I do agree with you when it comes to who needs to be held accountable and how, though.

 

[Doug1233]

A white person singing that word can be offensive.

I’m not saying it’s not offensive.

But there are shades of offensiveness. It’s not a “yes” “no” tickbox.

 

[Doug1233]

both are unacceptable.

As per my comment above, yes both are unacceptable, but one is much worse than the other.

If you steal $50 or $50,000 from a friend - both are bad - but one is obviously more bad…

 

[Doug1233]

Given your earlier comments in this thread (the ones that were moved to a separate thread) I’m sure you can appreciate why this is problematic.

Yes, it’s like someone referring to “the queer community” and someone calling ME “queer”. And then continuing to do it after I ask them to stop.

I don’t like either, but one is much less nefarious than the other.

 

[falcon9]

I’m linking all of the reddit threads as there is some interesting reading over there (in their 27 threads about it)…











https://www.reddit.com/r/Gymnastics/comments/s9fa4r/alexis_jeffrey_has_officially_been_removed_from/

https://www.reddit.com/r/Gymnastics/comments/s6pesc/any_idea_on_alexis_jeffery_arriving_at_lsu/

https://www.reddit.com/r/Gymnastics/comments/s7fx0r/amanda_sealess_ig_story_re_ucla_transfer/

 

[rlayt]

Thoughts?

 

[rlayt]

There are measured snd not so cool responses going on.