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Duck football player under investigation for alleged assaults of female student

8/26/2016 update: Coach Helfrich has now declared the player guilty, and in doing so has committed a flagrant violation of Klinger’s interpretation of the accused’s FERPA rights. The Salem Statesman Journal reports:

“[The student-athlete] has been suspended indefinitely for a violation of University and Department of Athletics codes of conduct,” Oregon coach Mark Helfrich said in a released statement. “At the conclusion of the University process, his status as a student-athlete will be evaluated further.”

Oh, right, the athletic department makes their players sign a FERPA release. How could I forget Dana Altman and Craig Pintens not telling me that? How could Tobin Klinger? Video here:

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Why did Mark Helfrich keep this quiet until after the Emerald reporters broke the story?

And guilty of what? The Duck’s team rules include things like a requirement you call Professional Development Coordinator Tom Hart on his *personal* cell-phone if you’ve had contact with the cops:

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And stay away from Egyptian motorcycle gangs and the Russian prostitutes they own.

8/26/2016: The Daily Emerald has the scoop here, from Tran Nguyen, Ryan Kostecka and Cooper Green. The RG and Oregonian reports do a nice job citing them. UO strategic communicator Tobin Klinger has his traditional response:

UO spokesman Tobin Klinger declined to provide details, citing the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. Representatives of the UO Athletic Department could not immediately be reached.

I’m no law professor, but here’s what the lawyers at the US Department of Education who supposedly enforce FERPA have to say about Klinger’s FERPA claim:

“Law enforcement unit records” (i.e., records created by the law enforcement unit, created for a law enforcement purpose, and maintained by the law enforcement unit) are not “education records” subject to the privacy protections of FERPA. As such, the law enforcement unit may refuse to provide an eligible student with an opportunity to inspect and review law enforcement unit records, and it may disclose law enforcement unit records to third parties without the eligible student’s prior written consent. However, education records, or personally identifiable information from education records, which the school shares with the law enforcement unit do not lose their protected status as education records because they are shared with the law enforcement unit.

4 Comments

  1. honest Uncle Bernie 08/27/2016

    As a UO release put it in the days of Dave Frohnmayer, “The good news just won’t stop.”

    • thumbelina 08/27/2016

      Yeah, and here we go into the murk again. Coach comments from Thorburn’s updated article today:

      “We’ve been beyond proactive, beyond transparent and beyond cooperative in every aspect and will continue to do that,” Helfrich said after Saturday’s practice before Oregon’s coaches and players interacted with fans inside the Moshofsky Center…”

      “As we go forward and find out new information regarding that whole process and university process, we’ll act accordingly and appropriately,” Helfrich said.”

      “When asked why he suspended Prevot without any charges being filed, Helfrich said: “It was a violation of university and athletic department codes of conduct, and we can’t elaborate on any other aspect of that.”

      So, even though the investigation is ongoing and no charges have been filed, apparently the AD has decided Prevot is guilty of some sort of “dating violence”, as per McIver, and suspended him indefinitely. AND … he’s known about it for several months and is just now, as of just last night when he supposedly got new information, handing out the suspension.

      They have not learned a damn thing from the basketball episode. Actually, it sounds like someone needs to go through the Concussion Protocol …..

  2. Huh. 08/29/2016

    So the survivor reported to EPD and it made it in the papers, I wonder what would have happened if they tried reporting to UOPD instead?

    • thumbelina 08/29/2016

      A fumble out of bounds.

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