When she went forward with her tale and proof of harassment after objecting to men playing women’s college sports, Kim Russell was the head women’s lacrosse coach at Oberlin College.
We covered her story, brought public by Independent Women’s Forum, in Oberlin College Head Women’s Lacrosse Coach Subjected to Disciplinary Hearings for Defending Women’s Sports:
Kim Russell is the head coach of Women’s lacrosse at Oberlin College. In March, she shared a post on social media congratulating the female swimmer who came in second to trans swimmer Lia Thomas in a race. The post described the runner-up as the ‘real’ female winner.One of her own players at Oberlin shared this information with Russell’s bosses, and what followed was a stream of ‘meetings’ at which Russell was demeaned and harassed. The school also wanted to her to write apology letters to the students and the department, which she refused to do.
Russell took the attention generated by the video to spread her message, including in a NY Post op-ed, Here’s why biological men don’t belong in women’s sports:
A male — no matter how they self-identify — should not be allowed to compete in a women’s sporting event.This is my opinion, based on biological truth that I’m well aware of as a former D1 two-sport athlete turned college lacrosse coach with over 27 years of coaching experience.I have been inducted into three halls of fame for coaching and contributing to the growth of lacrosse.But I was “burned at the stake” by Oberlin College for expressing that belief.
Now Kim Russell is the FORMER Head Coach of the Oberlin College Women’s Lacrosse team. Oberlin College removed her on 9-11, according to this report from IWF on September 12:
Yesterday, Independent Women’s Forum (IWF) Storyteller Kim Russell was terminated from her position as Head Women’s Lacrosse Coach at Oberlin College and instead reassigned to a newly created position by the university as an Employee Wellness Project Manager – a job which does not involve interaction with students. While a private institution reserves the right to fire or demote any employee at their own discretion, IWF considers this action by Oberlin as clear retaliation for Coach Kim Russell breaking her silence to expose Oberlin’s disciplinary meetings and full-fledged character assassination against her after she weighed in on the national debate over whether men who identify as women should participate in women’s sports..Oberlin College, in an attempt to curtail additional headlines, told Fox News they did not fire Coach Russell, but rather reassigned and removed her the head coaching position. Oberlin was quick to restrict her access to the team and athletic events with athletes once Russell’s IWF documentary went public, and less than two weeks later she no longer has her beloved coaching job.“I’ve just been blown away by the continued increase in biological men playing in women’s and girls’ sports,” Kim continued. “I’m really passionate about this because the reason we have these opportunities to play and to coach is because of the women who came before me, who fought for Title IX, who fought for us to have these opportunities. I don’t think the younger generation understands that these opportunities weren’t here years ago.”Russell concluded the interview, asking the critical question: “If we are going to allow biological males to compete in women’s and girls’ sports, why do we even have women’s and girls’ sports, why do we have Title IX, and why do we have legislation for women?”
This was totally unexpected coming from Oberlin College, it’s not like they have done anything similarly vindictive in the past which came back to bite them, from which they might have learned:
Oberlin College has not yet responded to my request for comment and for its explanation as to why Coach Russell was removed, but did provide this statement to Inside Higher Ed:
Oberlin College said in a statement via email that the decision to reassign Russell to a new role pertains to a “breach of trust rather than any views she has expressed.”“Russell posted about trans athletes on social media 18 months ago, in March 2022. She coached an entire season after that. But when she recorded her student-athletes without their knowledge or consent, then shared those recordings with the media, she violated their trust in an irreparable way,” the statement said. “This breach of trust—not her posts, feelings, or beliefs about trans athletes—is why she has been removed from her coaching duties.”(It is legal in Ohio to record an in-person conversation if one of the parties in the conversation, in this case Russell, has consented to being recorded.)
I don’t know if Russell plans on filing a legal suit, but the college’s explanation seems as contrived as its explanations for why it accused Gibson’s Bakery of racial profiling and discrimination, then kept digging even when it was in a hole.
If Russell was harassed, as she claims, that was the source of the problem, not that she recorded the harassment.
This has the appearance of lawyers and administrators for the college once again being too smart by half. Based on what’s been publicly revealed so far, it appears Russell obtained and released proof (including recordings) to document the intense persecution of her by some students and others. So if she doesn’t record and doesn’t release the recordings, the response would be: You have no proof! When she comes forward with the proof including recordings, the response is: How dare you obtain and share the proof!
Here we go again?
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