“Woke” Volleyball Headed To Court
By DEACON MIKE MANNO
Kylee McLaughlin, 22, was a star volleyball player, a model student, and a committed Christian. She was a standout on the University of Oklahoma volleyball team. During her high school years in Texas she was named the Female Gatorade Volleyball Player of the Year for the state of Texas. Naturally she was recruited by numerous universities that played intercollegiate volleyball.
She accepted a full scholarship to Oregon State University where she was named the Pac 12 Freshman Volleyball Player of the Year while maintaining a 4.0 grade point average (straight A). However, the distance from Oregon to her home in the Dallas metroplex of several thousand miles imposed a financial hardship on her family, and she decided to transfer, ultimately choosing the University of Oklahoma (OU).
At Oklahoma, she continued her outstanding athletic career, being named the all-Big 12 co-setter of the year during her first year there. She was also selected as national player of the week and received multiple honors, including being selected for the all-academic Big 12 and University of Oklahoma student-athlete of the year.
She continued her success during her second year, Big 12’s all-academic team, conference first team honors, and she was selected as captain of the women’s varsity volleyball team. With that background she was well on her way to playing volleyball professionally and to later coach.
But it all came crumbling down around her.
According to the federal lawsuit she filed against the University of Oklahoma and her coaches, everything changed for the volleyball team during the COVID pandemic of 2020. During that time, the team schedule necessarily changed and team meetings turned to discussions about white privilege and social justice, rather than volleyball.
It was during that time the coaches — now codefendants — required the team to watch a documentary called “13” on racism and slavery. After viewing the documentary one of the coaches asked her for her opinion, to which she replied that she agreed that slavery was wrong and slaves had been mistreated, and she agreed with the statistics that were shown in the film. However, she opined that she thought that at the end of the video it was “slanted left” and took some unwarranted shots at President Trump.
Pressed to comment on the video’s statement that black incarceration was higher than for other racial groups, she replied that she thought blacks were incarcerated mostly for marijuana and other drugs. Thereafter the team was instructed to discuss the video in small groups.
After one of the group discussions, one of Kylee’s teammates posted on social media her support of Black Lives Matter and included a copy of what Kylee said in response to her coaches’ question on the film and added, “Things a racist person says.” She was now being publicly called a racist.
There started a spiral of abuse against Kylee by her coaches and the university.
When she commented on social media that she thought it was silly that the Athletic Department at the University of Texas wanted to get rid of the fight song, The Eyes of Texas, for being a racist song, disagreeing that it was racist, she was forced to apologize to the Texas coach. Her coaches then told her to look into herself to identify her white privilege.
The head volleyball coach then sent a text to all the players stating, “We can disagree and still love each other unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist.” Later at a meeting with university officials and players, she was called a racist and homophobe.
Kylee’s sin, apparently, was not being a racist — she had never shown any indication of that — but of disagreeing with the “woke” culture and critical race theory advocated by the defendant coaches. She was told by her coach that she “did not fit in the culture of the program” and, on the basis of teammate comments, they could not trust her. [Editor’s Note: The word “woke” in this new usage is defined in Wikipedia as “a term that refers to awareness of issues that concern social justice and racial justice.”]
She was given three options: keep her scholarship, redshirt only with a coach, not the players, and attend equity and inclusion training; keep her scholarship and leave the team; or transfer to another school.
This became extremely emotional for Kylee. She decided to take the first option and redshirt with the coach only. The team was notified and a member of the team told the baseball team that Kylee had been kicked off the team for being a racist. Ultimately the redshirting with the coach fell through and Kylee’s emotional health began to deteriorate.
To make matters worse the coaching staff moved Kylee’s roommates out and required her to be in an “Individual Growth Plan,” where she would receive “online training about homosexuality, unlearning classism, ableism, trans and homosexual negatives, and sexism.” She was also forced to take courses on diversity and intra-culture communications. Finally the university forced her to enter the NCAA’s transfer portal and she transferred to the University of Mississippi.
According to the lawsuit: “Defendants’ actions in branding plaintiff as a racist and homophobe have not only caused plaintiff to transfer to the University of Mississippi to complete her eligibility and to pursue a master’s degree, they have also stigmatized plaintiff in universities like OU where critical race theory, diversity, inclusion, and woke culture are instructionally widespread.”
The lawsuit alleges violations in Kaylee’s First and Fourteenth Amendment rights, violation of federal law, and suppression of her free speech: casting her in a false light while invading her privacy; intentional infliction of emotional distress; and interference with a contractual relationship and prospective economic advantage, and an additional state claim.
The university and coaches “have chilled and continue to chill” her right to engage in protected expressions. And that she “has suffered economic loss, emotional distress, humiliation, embarrassment, injury to her reputation, and lost enjoyment of life.” The suit alleges that the harassment was intentional, and it has violated the contract she had with the university as a student-athlete and caused interference with her prospective career as a professional player and coach.
She is asking for “actual damages in a sum in excess of $75,000” from each defendant, punitive and exemplary damages, costs and attorney fees.
Interestingly, the two coaches, Lindsey Gray-Walton, and Kyle Walton (Gray-Walton’s husband), are being sued in both their official and individual capacities, which, if granted, could require the coaches to make payment to Kaylee from their own pockets. The case was filed at the end of May.
We’ll see what happens. But it does not put OU and its “woke” administrators in a good light.
(You can reach Mike at: DeaconMike@q.com and listen to him every Thursday at 10 a.m. CT on Faith On Trial on IowaCatholicRadio.com.)
