Standing up to the bullies of political correctness, no matter how righteous your cause, can be injurious to your career. One stark example is the treatment given C.D. Mock, the former head wrestling coach at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. When his son was suspended from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga for allegedly raping a fellow student, Mock began speaking out and blogging against the prevailing campus winds that are imposing absurd standards for sexual assault.
Chapel Hill is one of the first schools in the country to adopt an “affirmative consent” policy,” in which students are expected to receive explicit consent for each sexual act or be subject to punishment if their partner should accuse them in the future. It flips traditional justice on its head, for it places the burden of proof on the accused to prove that he had reason to believe consent was given, rather than on the accuser to prove that the activity was against her will.
In such an atmosphere, it was just almost certain that Mock would face punishment for speaking out—he was a non-tenured “at will” employee who could be fired for any reason. At the end of wrestling season, he was given his walking papers.
Additionally, his son was exonerated by a judge, whose decision echoed may of Coach Mock’s arguments and said that the junior Mock’s case should not have progressed as far as it did.
Coach Mock has his say about being railroaded out of his dream job at the school he loved, and he’s not bashful.
