Prep Athlete Expelled For Offensive Tweets
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By DERON SNYDER
“What would my grandmother think?”
If Yuri Wright had asked himself that simple question before sending out a series of offensive tweets, he probably wouldn’t have hit the button. And the University of Michigan wouldn’t have rescinded its scholarship offer. And Don Bosco Prep in Ramsey, N.J., wouldn’t have expelled him.
Twitter might be the equivalent of high school doodling 30 years ago, but those scribbled messages on notebook covers weren’t transmitted through cyberspace for the entire world to see. Even the average high school and college student can lose out on opportunities because of inappropriate social media postings. But top-ranked athletes with interest from schools such as Notre Dame, Colorado and Rutgers are watched as closely as anyone and should know better than to unleash tweets that are sexually graphic or racial.
“This could be the first … example of Twitter really hurting a [top-flight] kid,” national recruiting analyst Mike Farrell told the Star-Ledger. “The shame of it is that I know every kid was warned. I know conversations occur — especially at Don Bosco.”
