Hannah Strong Releases Statement, Could Avoid More Discipline

Suspended Syracuse Orange women's soccer player, Hannah Strong, who became infamous over the weekend because of this video that leaked and showed her spewing racial and homophobic slurs, released a statement Tuesday night apologizing for her actions (via the Daily Orange):

"I don't know how to express how truly sorry I am for my actions displayed in the recent online video. The words I chose are equally cruel and hurtful and do not reflect in any way how I view those it may have offended.

The video does not accurately represent who I am or the person I strive to become. However, I put myself in a situation that resulted in this behavior and I take all the responsibility for my actions.

To the Black and LGBT Communities, Coach Wheddon, Dr. Gross, both the athletic and academic community that is Syracuse University, and to my family, friends, and all those that have supported me: My sincere regret and apologies."

While, the statement and apology may not appease everyone, Strong's head coach Phil Wheddon said he is happy the senior midfielder came out and said something.

"We have policies and procedures by which the team operates, let alone the university. I'm glad that she's come out and said something," Wheddon told the Daily Orange. "I think that's important. There are codes of conduct for everyone.

"We try, we uphold the university's code of conduct, but we also have the way that we operate as a team."

Meanwhile, despite disappointing and offending a lot of people, many of which are calling for Strong to face harsher penalties, it seems like Strong did not violate any of the university's code of conduct for students. Thus, she could avoid anymore discipline from the university.

How can this be? Well, it is because the student conduct does not have anything on hate speech.

Now, we can argue whether or not what Strong said was actual hate speech based on context.  It is, however, hard to understand why, in 2014, a student's code of conduct doesn't cover any type of hate speech. I mean, it is 2014 for god sake.

Anyway, Strong's case is still under investigation by the university and according to Syracuse.com's report it could take awhile for everything to be completely resolved.

When the investigation is done, the findings will be turned over to the Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities. The next step there is a meeting with a case manager and an attempt at an informal resolution. If that doesn't work, Strong can take her case to a judicial officer or review board.

All-in-all, it looks like this case could hang around for a bit. Which can be good in the long run (socially), but not so good in the short term (for SU).