Chatman resignation raises questions not answered by sports features or gossip columns

The sports world was stunned recently when LSU women's basketball coach Pokey Chatman announced she was resigning her position to "pursue other career opportunities." There was no mention of being lured away by another school, such as Florida, who had shown an interest in hiring Chatman, nor was there any talk about a failure to negotiate a better contract, something Chatman could have realistically fought for. The vagueness of the announcement caused most people to suspect that something else was up, and indeed it was.

The news was all the more shocking because Chatman is one of the most respected coaches in the country, she is a legend in Louisiana, and she is nothing short of a folk hero in Baton Rouge. The band played the "Hokey Pokey" when she walked onto the court, and Chatman never minced words with either the media or opposing coaches. She was known, in fact, for being one of the most open and accessible figures in American sport. As a student athlete, Chatman broke twenty records, five of which she still holds, and her coaching record is equally impressive.

But the Lady Tigers' coach, it turns out, engaged in "innappropriate behavior" with a former student. There are no details as to who the student was, how long ago the behavior occurred, or for what duration it occurred. What is known is that an LSU employee learned of the behavior and informed the LSU athlethic department about it. For its part, the LSU athletic department appeared completely stunned by Chatman's announcement, and took no move to denigrate her reputation in any way.

More than likely, we will never know what really happened. Did a recently enlightened parent give Chatman an ultimatum? Did a disgruntled employee decide to reveal Chatman's indiscretion? Or did the student in question not get what she thought was rightfully hers and made the relationship public? Whatever happened, it seems obvious that Chatman crossed a serious boundary with a student and is now facing the consequences, which is as it should be. But there are other troubling questions about the incident that need to be answered.

The people of Louisiana are aware of the open secret that other LSU athletic department figures have engaged in sexual relationships with students, yet these LSU employees have not felt the pressure to resign from their positions. I am not formulating an apologia for Chatman, but—feeling quite certain that she is not the first one at her school, and in her department, to cross a forbidden boundary with a student—I do feel we need to ask why she is leaving, and her peers get to stay.

There is more than one obvious answer. First, Chatman is a woman, and women are expected to be able to curb their sexual appetites—at least by those who believe that women even have sexual appetites. As we have seen over and over in rape, sexual assault and sexual harrassment cases, men are generally considered "unable to help themselves" when it comes to the temptation of heterosexual sex. We still tell women not to "dress suggestively," and our military women who are raped and assaulted by their male peers are told in various ways that they "should have seen it coming." The message that women and girls get is: Men cannot control themselves, so it is up to you to prevent criminal sexual activity.

The next answer involves Chatman's sexual orientation. There is already a sizeable portion of the population who believes that all LGBT people are predators, that every lesbian or bisexual woman is—as Laura Dern fans know—just waiting to be awarded that coveted toaster oven for getting new "converts" to the "homosexual agenda." To those people, the news about Chatman's indiscretion just reinforces that belief.

Finally, Chatman is African American. Though there is no reason to believe that a white lesbian would have fared any better, being black automatically makes Chatman one-down. Let's be honest: If Pokey Chatman were brilliant in physics or American history, the chances are slim that she would be at the top of her profession. Women have a rough time of it in academia, and our well-known set of cultural biases tells us that being black and lesbian can only make the journey more difficult.

Chatman says that part of her philosophy is to have an attitude that creates excitement when failure occurs because of the great challenge that failure presents. Her philosophy is now being put to the test. Pokey Chatman should not have done what she did. She crossed a sacred student-teacher, student-coach boundary, and abused her privilege as an authority figure. Whatever happens, she brought it on herself. But if Chatman is taking a fall while heterosexual white men at her school get a pass, that is also wrong. Every professor or coach who has sex with a student is equally guilty, and they should all face the same consequences.