Around the League 36-But Who's Counting...

[Anton Dubinchuk]

I will say, regardless of where you fall on whether he should be allowed to play altogether, taking all of this shitstorm for what’s going to amount to a C-level prospect makes negative sense to me.

Like, I of course don’t think a guy like Kaepernick should have been suspended or blacklisted in any way, but I also get why 32 separate GMs wouldn’t want to invite the media storm for a guy that would’ve likely amounted to a low-end starter or high-end backup.

This, on the other hand… say what you want about not punishing a guy for life, but I’m certainly glad the Canes weren’t the ones doing this.

 

[Navin R Slavin]

I will say, regardless of where you fall on whether he should be allowed to play altogether, taking all of this shitstorm for what’s going to amount to a C-level prospect makes negative sense to me.

Like, I of course don’t think a guy like Kaepernick should have been suspended or blacklisted in any way, but I also get why 32 separate GMs wouldn’t want to invite the media storm for a guy that would’ve likely amounted to a low-end starter or high-end backup.

This, on the other hand… say what you want about not punishing a guy for life, but I’m certainly glad the Canes weren’t the ones doing this.

This. No one wants to deal with it. Someone in the Bs front office thought they could slide a toxic prospect into their AHL team under the radar. Nope. Bad decision.

Own your shit, kid. Go play in Germany or somewhere, where they don't read English news sites. No one owes you anything. Go learn how to not be an asshole, show some real remorse, and maybe, just maybe, you'll have a shot at the NHL one day.

But you know what? Some people are sociopaths. I suspect this kid is an actual, honest to goodness sociopath. And even sociopaths can succeed in society if they learn to play by society's rules. I suspect he hasn't, and he won't unless there are consequences.

 

[Blueline Bomber]

And for all the talk about how "he was a kid", we were all kids once. I don't know about any of you, but at 14, I knew that feeding a mentally challenged person urinal cakes and yelling racial slurs fell under the "extremely f***ed up" category.

 

[SoupNazi]

I will say, regardless of where you fall on whether he should be allowed to play altogether, taking all of this shitstorm for what’s going to amount to a C-level prospect makes negative sense to me.

Like, I of course don’t think a guy like Kaepernick should have been suspended or blacklisted in any way, but I also get why 32 separate GMs wouldn’t want to invite the media storm for a guy that would’ve likely amounted to a low-end starter or high-end backup.

This, on the other hand… say what you want about not punishing a guy for life, but I’m certainly glad the Canes weren’t the ones doing this.

That's what I don't understand about this. The kid isn't a Gretzky or Orr-level player. The odds that he amounts to much in the NHL are stacked against him, so for Boston to take this chance was weird.

For them to not see this blowback coming from miles away was even weirder.

 

[hblueridgegal]

But you know what? Some people are sociopaths. I suspect this kid is an actual, honest to goodness sociopath. And even sociopaths can succeed in society if they learn to play by society's rules. I suspect he hasn't, and he won't unless there are consequences.

Cynically, I am shocked his agent didn't put together a game plan for him to at least look like he was paying lip service to the expected norms. Based on the reporting, it doesn't look like he put much effort into revamping his image.

I work with two sociopaths ..not just a**holes...sociopaths. There are many of us that feel that way. But as you say, they both play by society's rules and stay within the work lines just enough to skirt serious trouble. However, their constant mind games and presence makes even a virtual meeting that they join awkward. The vibe is icky. I am glad I work from home and don't have to encounter them in person more than a few times a year.

 

[tarheelhockey]

Being in the NHL is a privilege not a right. He's free to continue his hockey career elsewhere, but the NHL is well within their rights to bar someone from entry based on character issues and past legal issues.

I’m not sure that’s true when we’re:

A) Applying that standard very inconsistently, and

B) Dealing with issues committed not just as a minor, but as a middle schooler.

They’re walking a very fine line here. It’s one thing for franchises to be socially shamed into staying away from him. It’s something totally different for the head office to formally declare him ineligible for employment out of the… dozens? hundreds? … of players who were just as awful as this guy as youths. This is a league where Tony DeAngelo is eligible to play despite being on formal record using racial slurs during games (ie in the actual workplace). We’ve got how many sexual assault cases on record now? And none of these guys has ever been declared straight-up ineligible for a contract.

If Miller can make a case that he is being personally singled out as a fall guy for management’s PR purposes, and that this impacts his access to union membership, that sounds like a labor lawsuit in the making.

 

[tarheelhockey]

And for all the talk about how "he was a kid", we were all kids once. I don't know about any of you, but at 14, I knew that feeding a mentally challenged person urinal cakes and yelling racial slurs fell under the "extremely f***ed up" category.

I agree, but I also remember being a middle schooler and there most definitely were kids who would do stuff like this. I have two middle schoolers now, and a middle school teacher in the family. This sort of behavior is not at all uncommon at that age range. Most of it never goes to court or involves celebrities.

 

[Anton Dubinchuk]

I agree, but I also remember being a middle schooler and there most definitely were kids who would do stuff like this. I have two middle schoolers now, and a middle school teacher in the family. This sort of behavior is not at all uncommon at that age range. Most of it never goes to court or involves celebrities.

My wife is in education as well and there was an incident last year at the high school where parents were yelling at the school about being unfair to students in a specific situation where it was obvious to the administration what had actually happened, but the students decided to tell their parents a different story and the parents went with their kids. The school counselor is a well-licensed and highly thought of psychiatrist, and often talks to the teachers about how the part of the brains in teenagers that separates truth from falsehood is not fully developed, and how in some situations they actually flat out believe some of the falsehoods they say to their parents and whatever, so reasoning with them or using some appeal to authority or whatever won’t actually work. They don’t even totally know they’re lying sometimes. And these were high school seniors.

I thought of that when the genuineness of his apology at 14 years old was brought up. If he’s 14, he’s got the type of parents who clearly want to fight that he didn’t do anything wrong, etc… it’s not out of the question that his brain might actually switch into “I didn’t do anything wrong mode,” and that’s only something that would start to hit him later. Idk. It’s irresponsible to speculate I suppose. But all of this to say that 14 is a tough age to cast judgment on. Yeah, I was a sweetie pie at 14 who was nice to the autistic kid in our grade (made a deal with one of our teachers that when we paired off into “buddies” for field trips, if me and my 2 other friends could group up with him and make a group of 4 we could all hang out together all field trip). Not everyone was. Was this extensive beyond the normal middle school experience? Of course. This kid was probably every bit the little shit in 8th grade that he’s coming off as. But it’s 8th grade. Folks did bad stuff. The whole age range is about finding and testing boundaries. The parents (judging by the court case) didn’t care to enforce any. Throwing around amateur diagnoses of “sociopath” based on fragmented information from someone’s middle school years is a tough one for me.

 

[Navin R Slavin]

I agree, but I also remember being a middle schooler and there most definitely were kids who would do stuff like this. I have two middle schoolers now, and a middle school teacher in the family. This sort of behavior is not at all uncommon at that age range. Most of it never goes to court or involves celebrities.

"Most of it never goes to court" is the bright line here.

This isn't just some run of the mill shitty middle school kid. This is a kid who was so shitty that other kids ratted him out for it, and it turned into a court case.

Let's be real clear here: the popular kids don't end up in court for bullying unless it's some seriously f***ed up shit.

 

[LostInaLostWorld]

"Most of it never goes to court" is the bright line here.

This isn't just some run of the mill shitty middle school kid. This is a kid who was so shitty that other kids ratted him out for it, and it turned into a court case.

Let's be real clear here: the popular kids don't end up in court for bullying unless it's some seriously f***ed up shit.

I was going to post similar. And it went on for years. Not just an incident or 10.

The parents are more to blame as well as school admin. No excuse for the kid though.

 

[tarheelhockey]

My wife is in education as well and there was an incident last year at the high school where parents were yelling at the school about being unfair to students in a specific situation where it was obvious to the administration what had actually happened, but the students decided to tell their parents a different story and the parents went with their kids. The school counselor is a well-licensed and highly thought of psychiatrist, and often talks to the teachers about how the part of the brains in teenagers that separates truth from falsehood is not fully developed, and how in some situations they actually flat out believe some of the falsehoods they say to their parents and whatever, so reasoning with them or using some appeal to authority or whatever won’t actually work. They don’t even totally know they’re lying sometimes. And these were high school seniors.

I thought of that when the genuineness of his apology at 14 years old was brought up. If he’s 14, he’s got the type of parents who clearly want to fight that he didn’t do anything wrong, etc… it’s not out of the question that his brain might actually switch into “I didn’t do anything wrong mode,” and that’s only something that would start to hit him later. Idk. It’s irresponsible to speculate I suppose. But all of this to say that 14 is a tough age to cast judgment on. Yeah, I was a sweetie pie at 14 who was nice to the autistic kid in our grade (made a deal with one of our teachers that when we paired off into “buddies” for field trips, if me and my 2 other friends could group up with him and make a group of 4 we could all hang out together all field trip). Not everyone was. Was this extensive beyond the normal middle school experience? Of course. This kid was probably every bit the little shit in 8th grade that he’s coming off as. But it’s 8th grade. Folks did bad stuff. The whole age range is about finding and testing boundaries. The parents (judging by the court case) didn’t care to enforce any. Throwing around amateur diagnoses of “sociopath” based on fragmented information from someone’s middle school years is a tough one for me.

Someone in the main board thread made a good point: if your kid was standing in front of a judge pleading guilty to assault, how would that impact your planning for his travel hockey season?

Apparently in this family, it had no impact at all. in fact, according to the victim’s mother, they openly (and deeply ironically) shielded Miller from consequences so that it wouldn’t disrupt his shot at the NHL. So you end up with a kid who lacks the psychological basis for remorse because of normal age-related issues, and is also being given abnormal mixed signals on the social level. It’s ****ed up and judging by the number of “incidents” we’ve seen in just the past couple of years, appears to be extremely common in hockey as well as other sports, Hollywood, etc.

 

[Rynewed]

I agree, but I also remember being a middle schooler and there most definitely were kids who would do stuff like this. I have two middle schoolers now, and a middle school teacher in the family. This sort of behavior is not at all uncommon at that age range. Most of it never goes to court or involves celebrities.

Sorry but that says something about you or those you grew up with and in no way is at all relatable for 90% of the posters on here or the hockey community as a whole. And theres nothing wrong with growing up in the richest or most impoverished city in the nation, but trying to conflate the two is just not okay

Id love to know what middle school this was where kids were openly using the n word towards black students, partially stalking others outside school, and making urinal cakes out of lollipops for disabled students. Even in Newark NJ public schools and similar districts where violent crime, theft, and abuse are prevalent - I assure you the kids know exactly what they are doing is right or wrong (except in their case sometimes it isnt by choice) and this is the case in areas where parental guidance is barely even a concept, let alone an affluent suburb.

This isnt even an opinionated subject. Its not anywhere from common to very rare. Its EXTREMELY rare. This is a product of a world where any opinion is allowed to be shared whether violently wrong or detrimental. Where once upon a time a lunatic with ridiculous claims would be silenced or ignored

Infants aged one are scientifically proven to be smart enough to see an adults facial expressions and react based off of them, whether involving toys or food or play. But somehow you want people to believe that this poor Mitchell Miller was just a young ignorant teen who made mistakes?

Honestly, Ill choose to believe that you are smarter than this but are perhaps feeling a bit contrarian today or just simply believe that these things actually happen through having grown up in a not-so-good home. Because just about the only logical explanation available that wouldnt demonize Miller is if you proved he grew up in a highly-racist household and was partially physically abused at home. Then youd have laid down the correct circumstances for this type of behavior. Otherwise its a mental defect or by choice and considering his physical and mental makeup as we know it - odds are hes just a piece of shit

 

[tarheelhockey]

"Most of it never goes to court" is the bright line here.

This isn't just some run of the mill shitty middle school kid. This is a kid who was so shitty that other kids ratted him out for it, and it turned into a court case.

Let's be real clear here: the popular kids don't end up in court for bullying unless it's some seriously f***ed up shit.

You better believe that bullies are going to start ending up in court going forward. There’s a lot more formal structure around accountability for this stuff than there was even just 5 years ago. Assault is assault and it’s not brushed off with a “boys will be boys” attitude in the current climate.

Anyway, nobody questions that he was an extremely shitty kid. I just don’t see how that’s relevant to his rights as an adult.

We can all tell stories about kids in our schools who were just as shitty as this guy. Some of us can probably one-up this story. What do we expect to come of that now, years later as adults? Do we think these people are undeserving of a career unless they find their victims and make a public apology? If that’s not true across the board, why is it true for this one person in particular? And how is it ethically OK to make it straight-up impossible for this one person to move on, while waving a bunch of sex offenders and racists through the system?

 

[Navin R Slavin]

You better believe that bullies are going to start ending up in court going forward. There’s a lot more formal structure around accountability for this stuff than there was even just 5 years ago. Assault is assault and it’s not brushed off with a “boys will be boys” attitude in the current climate.

Anyway, nobody questions that he was an extremely shitty kid. I just don’t see how that’s relevant to his rights as an adult.

We can all tell stories about kids in our schools who were just as shitty as this guy. Some of us can probably one-up this story. What do we expect to come of that now, years later as adults? Do we think these people are undeserving of a career unless they find their victims and make a public apology? If that’s not true across the board, why is it true for this one person in particular? And how is it ethically OK to make it straight-up impossible for this one person to move on, while waving a bunch of sex offenders and racists through the system?

No one is disputing his right to a career as a garbageman, or an IT worker, or a high powered sales guy for a pharmaceutical company, or any one of the other millions of anonymous jobs that regular people have.

But guess what? Sometimes being shitty has consequences later in life. And if you want to be a high profile athlete, being a racist abusive piece of shit who ends up in court for it means that you've got a pretty high bar to clear to prove that you're no longer a racist abusive piece of shit, especially in a sport that is starting to discover more and more instances of racist abusive pieces of shit.

From what I can tell, he has done basically nothing to clear that bar. Maybe he should work on that instead of crying to the NHLPA or whatever.

 

[Svechhammer]

Someone in the main board thread made a good point: if your kid was standing in front of a judge pleading guilty to assault, how would that impact your planning for his travel hockey season?

Yikes

If you're in court pleading guilty to assault charges, the absolute last thing on your mind should be your travel hockey season. The fact that some even want to make that excuse is a prime example on exactly why "hockey culture" is such a f***ing shit show right now.

 

[tarheelhockey]

Sorry but that says something about you or those you grew up with and in no way is at all relatable for 90% of the posters on here or the hockey community as a whole.

I’ll leave it to each individual to decide whether they relate to having gone to school with kids like this. Your 90% is pulled out of thin air… again I’m pulling from my experiences, the experiences of raising 3 kids including 2 currently in middle school, the other now being a middle school teacher, myself being a former high school teacher, and my wife formerly working with troubled children in this age range.

In my personal experience I assure you that there are a shit-ton of Mitchell Millers out there, and the great majority of them are not disturbed individuals, just adolescent going through the ugly impacts of having a partially-developed, hormone-addled adolescent brain. Spend a day in the principal’s office of a middle school and you will hear about stuff comparable to this situation, it’s extremely common and the reason why schools across the board are heavily implementing anti-bullying interventions. .

And theres nothing wrong with growing up in the richest or most impoverished city in the nation, but trying to conflate the two is just not okay

I don’t know what that means.

This isnt even an opinionated subject. Its not anywhere from common to very rare. Its EXTREMELY rare. This is a product of a world where any opinion is allowed to be shared whether violently wrong or detrimental.

I very strongly disagree with that assessment.

Infants aged one are scientifically proven to be smart enough to see an adults facial expressions and react based off of them, whether involving toys or food or play. But somehow you want people to believe that this poor Mitchell Miller was just a young ignorant teen who made mistakes?

That’s exactly the point. Social skills develop early. A kid figures out very quickly how to do something horrible to a sibling and then act innocent to the parents. It takes decades to develop to the point where doing something horrible to a sibling actually feels bad. That is, fundamentally, the difference between a child and an adult. And we all know that 14 year olds think they are adults, but actually are children in the most crucial ways.

Honestly, Ill choose to believe that you are smarter than this but are perhaps feeling a bit contrarian today or just simply believe that these things actually happen through having grown up in a not-so-good home. Because just about the only logical explanation available that wouldnt demonize Miller is if you proved he grew up in a highly-racist household and was partially physically abused at home. Then youd have laid down the correct circumstances for this type of behavior. Otherwise its a mental defect or by choice and considering his physical and mental makeup as we know it - odds are hes just a piece of shit

You’re making all sorts of wild conjecture here. One of the low hanging ones: kids can absolutely grow up in a racially tolerant home and then turn around and say/do racist shit. It happens all the time, because — here it is again! — kids operate primarily on social cues and lack a fully developed sense of innate right and wrong. All it takes is realizing that other kids will think it’s funny if they say the n-word, and you’ve got a kid experimenting with saying the n-word for laughs. Likewise, adolescents are notoriously aggressive about “othering” each other for any reason, from skin color to haircuts to shoe brands to favorite TV show to literally anything you can think of — it’s what they do naturally as they experiment with creating their own social structures. This stuff is straight up universal, it’s not about rich/poor or racist/tolerant or anything else in the household. The function of the household is to put social controls on the child so that slowly, on the back end of their development process, they come to recognize shitty behavior and cut it out. On the early end you might see that start to kick in at 13 or 14, but as a former 10th grade teacher (15/16 year olds) I can assure you I saw all this stuff on display daily from kids of every background.

 

[tarheelhockey]

No one is disputing his right to a career as a garbageman, or an IT worker, or a high powered sales guy for a pharmaceutical company, or any one of the other millions of anonymous jobs that regular people have.

But guess what? Sometimes being shitty has consequences later in life. And if you want to be a high profile athlete, being a racist abusive piece of shit who ends up in court for it means that you've got a pretty high bar to clear to prove that you're no longer a racist abusive piece of shit, especially in a sport that is starting to discover more and more instances of racist abusive pieces of shit.

From what I can tell, he has done basically nothing to clear that bar. Maybe he should work on that instead of crying to the NHLPA or whatever.

I would agree with all of this if we were talking about adult behavior, but we are talking about literal children here. No, I don’t think it’s legally defensible or even a good idea for a employer in a unionized profession to tell one guy that he is ineligible for employment because he was a bully in middle school. If they want to make that a policy across the board, and do background checks on every NHL player going back to middle school? Fine, I think that’s a horrible idea but at least it stands up. But the Commissioner has no apparent legal right to unilaterally declare a player ineligible for a contract because of something like this — and for good reason.

Yikes

If you're in court pleading guilty to assault charges, the absolute last thing on your mind should be your travel hockey season. The fact that some even want to make that excuse is a prime example on exactly why "hockey culture" is such a f***ing shit show right now.

We can speculate about Miller’s mental development at that time, but the parents have no excuse. They blatantly put the chance for a hockey career ahead of the basic moral development of their child. That’s even if we don’t take at face value the victim’s mother’s version of events which makes them looks even worse. They’re pretty much the embodiment of the “hockey culture” that allows teenagers to do whatever they want as long as they get drafted.

 

[Navin R Slavin]

...but as a former 10th grade teacher (15/16 year olds) I can assure you I saw all this stuff on display daily from kids of every background.

This can be true, and yet, if any of these kids lose their one-in-a-million opportunity to be a pro athlete because of it...

*Good*.

Have empathy for shitty abusive jock kids all you want. There are lots and lots of jock kids out there who manage to not be abusive pieces of shit.

Every time a shitty jock kid gets their dream taken away from them, it gives parents and kids an object lesson that some of them desperately f***ing need.

Mitch Miller has every opportunity to be a hot shot sales guy, like most washout athletes I've ever met, and have a six figure income and a smoking wife and a decent life -- *if he actually learned his lesson*.

But what about that kid he abused? I'll save my empathy for him.

And honestly, at this point, I'm kind of even surprised that it's a conversation. People make bad decisions all the time that cost them their dreams. Usually it's only their own lives they f*** up in that process.

 

[Ole Gil]

I've seen people trying to work out the cap situation of Patrick Kane who beat and robbed a 60 year old cabbie over 20 cents while drunk at 20.

If the league wants to be the morality police, that's fine, I guess. But arbitrarily applying punishments based on how viral the story is is dumb.

 

[Navin R Slavin]

I've seen people trying to work out the cap situation of Patrick Kane who beat and robbed a 60 year old cabbie over 20 cents while drunk at 20.

If the league wants to be the morality police, that's fine, I guess. But arbitrarily applying punishments based on how viral the story is is dumb.

Oh, it's not arbitrary at all.

Patrick Kane was already a star player making money for his owners. Mitch Miller is not.

Capitalism is anything but arbitrary.

 

[Anton Dubinchuk]

Oh, it's not arbitrary at all.

Patrick Kane was already a star player making money for his owners. Mitch Miller is not.

Capitalism is anything but arbitrary.

“Do we want to keep Mitch Miller or Patrick Kane out of the league?”

“Well, as an adult, Patrick Kane is Patrick Kane. But as an adult, Mitch Miller could be anything! He could even be a Patrick Kane!”

 

[Blueline Bomber]

You better believe that bullies are going to start ending up in court going forward. There’s a lot more formal structure around accountability for this stuff than there was even just 5 years ago. Assault is assault and it’s not brushed off with a “boys will be boys” attitude in the current climate.

Anyway, nobody questions that he was an extremely shitty kid. I just don’t see how that’s relevant to his rights as an adult.

We can all tell stories about kids in our schools who were just as shitty as this guy. Some of us can probably one-up this story. What do we expect to come of that now, years later as adults? Do we think these people are undeserving of a career unless they find their victims and make a public apology? If that’s not true across the board, why is it true for this one person in particular? And how is it ethically OK to make it straight-up impossible for this one person to move on, while waving a bunch of sex offenders and racists through the system?

If one of their victims comes forward and wants to demand an apology of them, then yeah, I don't see why not. If that's an issue, either don't be a complete asshole as a kid or reach out and apologize once you know better. Don't wait until it becomes an inconvenience to do so.

 

[Navin R Slavin]

If one of their victims comes forward and wants to demand an apology of them, then yeah, I don't see why not. If that's an issue, either don't be a complete asshole as a kid or reach out and apologize once you know better. Don't wait until it becomes an inconvenience to do so.

This seems like a pretty good "literally the very least thing you can expect" criteria, yes.

 

[Negan4Coach]

Sorry but that says something about you or those you grew up with and in no way is at all relatable for 90% of the posters on here or the hockey community as a whole. And theres nothing wrong with growing up in the richest or most impoverished city in the nation, but trying to conflate the two is just not okay

Id love to know what middle school this was where kids were openly using the n word towards black students, partially stalking others outside school, and making urinal cakes out of lollipops for disabled students. Even in Newark NJ public schools and similar districts where violent crime, theft, and abuse are prevalent - I assure you the kids know exactly what they are doing is right or wrong (except in their case sometimes it isnt by choice) and this is the case in areas where parental guidance is barely even a concept, let alone an affluent suburb.

This isnt even an opinionated subject. Its not anywhere from common to very rare. Its EXTREMELY rare. This is a product of a world where any opinion is allowed to be shared whether violently wrong or detrimental. Where once upon a time a lunatic with ridiculous claims would be silenced or ignored

Infants aged one are scientifically proven to be smart enough to see an adults facial expressions and react based off of them, whether involving toys or food or play. But somehow you want people to believe that this poor Mitchell Miller was just a young ignorant teen who made mistakes?

Honestly, Ill choose to believe that you are smarter than this but are perhaps feeling a bit contrarian today or just simply believe that these things actually happen through having grown up in a not-so-good home. Because just about the only logical explanation available that wouldnt demonize Miller is if you proved he grew up in a highly-racist household and was partially physically abused at home. Then youd have laid down the correct circumstances for this type of behavior. Otherwise its a mental defect or by choice and considering his physical and mental makeup as we know it - odds are hes just a piece of shit

This statement is kind of obtuse, and I'd be willing to bet you're pretty young and don't have kids. Anybody who grew up during the 70s and 80s can tell you that this sort of ugly, brutal behavior at that age is pretty run-of-the-mill. As was kids dropping the N-bomb all the time (although to be fair I never saw it said to the black kids). And I grew up in a pretty affluent area. I was the victim and also perpetrator of bullying. Some of the shit that went on back then- the absolutely wholesale destruction of property, vicious beatings, disrespect towards adults, drug abuse- were all done by people who mostly grew up to be normal adults. And I'm not sure how silencing people's opinions you don't like would help with the reality of the dark heart of mankind.

I just watched the movie "The Black Phone" and I was like "Yeah, this is how I remember the late 70s and early 80s"- I was scared out of my mind of the older kids who'd just absolutely whale on you at the slightest provocation.

On the one hand- I don't think ill behavior as a kid should doom you for the rest of your life thanks to social media's power to whip up outrage. There is a reason why they usually seal juvenile criminal records. And this case was adjudicated in the courts- so he has received the punishment society deemed fit and at some point that punishment needs to end. And I'm not sure what he could possibly do to make up for it and satisfy the NHL that he deserves to play.

on the other hand, this wasn't just pissing on a lolipop and sticking it in the kid's mouth. I mean damn- years and years of pervasive bullying, supposedly continuing even after the court case, with the racism and beatings and on top of it a disabled kid. I can totally see why they'd draw the line here. What really needs to be investigated is how all the adults let this go on for so long. What Mitchell really needed was not a day in court but a brutal beating from the other kids which would have been the only way to actually teach him a lesson.

 

[tarheelhockey]

If one of their victims comes forward and wants to demand an apology of them, then yeah, I don't see why not. If that's an issue, either don't be a complete asshole as a kid or reach out and apologize once you know better. Don't wait until it becomes an inconvenience to do so.

I totally agree, I just don’t add “or your employer can arbitrarily decide to fire you over it” to the end of that. At least not unless all employees are being actively checked for clearance of that particular bar.

Again we are talking about issues from someone’s childhood here, and there are WAY too many ways for that kind of practice to backfire.