Columbia Suspends Wrestling Season After Racist, Lewd Texts Emerge
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Columbia University has suspended its wrestling team's season while the school investigates controversial text messages reportedly sent among team members.
The messages, first reported by the student-run website Bwog, were laced with racist, sexist and homophobic language and slurs.
The Ivy League school said in a statement Monday that its athletic department "has decided that Columbia wrestlers will not compete until we have a full understanding of the facts on which to base the official response to this disturbing matter." The team had already been forced by the university to withdraw from a meet Sunday at Binghamton.
The lewd texts were sent over the last three years using the app GroupMe, reported Bwog, which published screen grabs of the exchanges. Many of the messages used the "N" word. Others used a derogatory term for homosexuals. One text exchange, about the school canceling a concert in response to sexual assault allegations, wrote, "I hope someone actually gets sexually assaulted."
Columbia called the language in the texts "appalling" and said they were "at odds with the core values of the university, violate team guidelines and have no place in our community."
Last week, Harvard suspended its men's soccer team's season after the student newspaper there reported that players had been creating a lewd "scouting report" rating the looks of female soccer players.
