Ship of fools

So let me get this straight. Duke University isn't just an institute of higher learning, but one of the elite institutes of higher learning in the nation. Yet school officials at Duke are a bunch of fools.
Yeah, that about sums it up.
Reports by various news sources, including Newsday and ESPN, indicate Duke will announce next week that they are reinstating the men's lacrosse program for next season.
For those who have lived under a rock for the past few months, Duke suspended the men's lacrosse program for the season after an alleged rape at a team party.
Duke officials first underreacted then overreacted. They didn't bother to even pause for a breath in the middle.
Officials listened to their own campus police immediately after the incident and believed there was nothing to it. So they did nothing. Strike one.
Then, when they realized something did happen, school officials had a knee-jerk reaction and suspended the program for the year and forced the coach to resign. That was before, mind you, any of the players had been arrested or formally charged. Strike two.
Now, with these reports out that the program will be back next year, officials have publicly denied that is the case.
If it is true and the team will be back next year, why deny it? Just keep quiet until the announcement.
But if it isn't true and the school isn't bringing back the program, then Duke officials are even dumber than I thought possible.
After all, if the NFL banned teams every time a few players committed a crime, no matter how severe, we'd be down to about three teams. And keep in mind, it hasn't been proven that any of the Duke players did anything wrong yet.
Either way, it's strike three.
Duke - you're out.
- Patrick Hite