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June 24, 1999 Students: Tension exists 
At the request of Outside the Lines, ESPN Chilton surveyed 800 high school
students by telephone in early June for their thoughts on the tension
between athletes and non-athletes. Below are highlights from the random
survey (in which 48 percent of respondents identified themselves as
athletes, 50 percent as male, and 69 percent as white).
All figures are expressed in percentages.
Also included are selected thoughts by experts on various topics:
"If you talk to some high school principals, they will (say that problems with athletes bullying) doesn't really exist, or that it's a very minimal kind of problem. Or, that youngsters in general bully other youngsters. But then I've talked to other high school principals, and I've talked to people who work in high schools, who say it goes on on a very regular basis."
"The tension between athletes and non-athletes was intense, and continues to be intense, because students who aren't athletes feel that they deserve as much recognition for what they're good at. They deserve to be treated just as well as boys who are athletes, but they aren't. And so there's not much they can do in terms of the school administration. But they can do a lot in terms of being hostile and competitive with athletes who they feel mistreat them daily."
"If I compare what's going on in a school like Columbine, or other schools around the country, to what was going on when I was in school, things are different today. Even though there are groups, those groups are constituted in different ways. You gain privilege in different ways. The implications of privilege are a little bit different. Sports has a different kind of profile now than it did 40 years ago."
"The physical presence of athletes can be intimidating. Simply their presence."
"Athletes in certain sports start to feel entitled within a context of the school, and start to feel that they can claim certain kinds of privilege that other students can't. And that privilege gives them the right, for example, to cut into line in a cafeteria. To appropriate space around the lockers. To take up more space as they walk down the hallways without acknowledging other students. And to the extent that might happen, other students would see those individuals as obnoxious."
"(Athletes) may take some of their aggessive behaviors from the playing field and transplant that to the school environment, where they're aggressive in a sort of depersonalized fashion towards girls, and towards other groups of kids as well."
"The tragedy in Columbine has released an explosion of pain on the part of kids who experience high school very differently. And that may be kids who identify as a non-athlete, or in other ways. You know, that they either feel excluded, or feel on the fringe of high school life."
"In Littleton, for example, I would never, ever say anything that would justify the tragedy that occurred there, but I think those kids who committed the shootings had suffered for a long time at the hands of a bunch of guys who thought they were really powerful in their school. And when the school reinforces it by saying, yes, these guys are powerful, the kids who have little, who are poor, who aren't athletic, or who feel on the fringes to start with, are really marginalized."
"Not all athletes gain equal amounts of social capital. I think there are athletes in the so-called minor sports, and a lot of women athletes, who don't get the same kind of social capital that maybe (accrues to) male athletes on some high-profile sports."
"Schools need to offer a variety of programs and activities to build teamwork, to enhance confidence, to build self-esteem and to promote leadership skills. If more schools began to do that, and more boards of education put the dollars toward that, over time, maybe we would see the kid who plays the violin bullying the football player. I'm not saying the day is ever going to come, but darn it -- sports are wonderful, but it's not the end-all and be-all. Part of being an athlete, and part of being a leader, is you have to be respected as an individual, and you have to show respect for others. That's the loud, clear message I would want every athlete in this country to receive from adults."
"Our principals are under a lot of pressure to have good schools. And in America, especially in (suburban) communities, having a good football team or a basketball team is synonymous with being a good school ... and sometimes principals may turn the other cheek because you don't really want to suspend your star basketball or football player."
"I don't think schools are neutral institutions. I think schools decide
which of their students are to be favored and which aren't. I mean, I've
studied hundreds of schools all over the country for the last 15 years, and
these are very political organizations. They make a decision about who's
valued and who isn't. And when a school devotes two hours to an athletic
assembly, it's sending a message to the rest of the students."
"I think coaches have this responsibility to go beyond just winning and
losing ... But I also want to say coaches feel this tremendous pressure to
win. You know, it's compounded by what you see going on with (organizations like those running) the Olympics right now -- the fraud, the deception. It's just horribly wrong."
"Parents need to organize, and they need to make their voices known. Because one thing that's true is that schools think that they reflect the values of the community -- in that what goes on in the schools is an extension of what goes on in life outside. But parents need to say, 'No, that's not what life
is. What you're doing is artificial.' " |
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