Christie Wades into Sayreville Hazing Debacle

By Matt Rooney | The Save Jersey Blog

The Governor also said he was “concerned” about the ongoing Ebola crisis amid concerns from legislators and experts during a press availability outside of the offices of the Dioceses of Trenton on Thursday afternoon:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wI3v61n1f-Q 

Transcript:

Governor Christie: The facts as reported currently are extraordinarily disturbing and as the father of a number of teenage athletes, the idea that that kind of conduct could be permitted, if it’s true, that that kind of conduct could be permitted in a high school athletic program or anywhere else in our state for that matter is absolutely unacceptable. Now I’ve already had conversations with the Education Commissioner and the Attorney General. They’re working well together to deal with this issue both from an educational perspective and a law enforcement perspective and so I don’t want to jump too far out ahead but the fact is that if these facts as alleged are true, then this is a nightmare for the parents of those young men. And it tells us something about the attitude that was allowed to pervade in that program. Both of those things need to be addressed, not only specifically in Sayreville, but more broadly across the entire state to ensure that no other young male or female athletes are exposed to that type of treatment. And so I speak on that one, not only as the Governor but as the father of four children who play sports and two of them who have played sports in high school. You think when you send your child to a sporting activity that they’re going to be engaged in activity that’s positive for them, that’s uplifting, that teaches them the right type of lessons. If that’s what went on in Sayreville, that’s not what parents were expecting their children to be exposed to or taught and it’s unacceptable. So we need to find out more facts and that’s what the Attorney General’s job is and the local prosecutors. I have great confidence, not only in Attorney General Hoffman, but in Prosecutor Carey who I also worked with at the U.S. Attorney’s office and I know to be a really strong, smart prosecutor. And I’ve already had conversations with Commissioner Hespe about dealing with this on a more holistic way from the educational perspective in our high schools. We’re going to keep working towards it but I don’t want to get, in terms of the facts of that individual case, any further out in front of it until we get all of the facts that are necessary to make a fair and just determination.

Matt Rooney
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MATT ROONEY is SaveJersey.com's founder and editor-in-chief, a practicing New Jersey attorney, and the host of 'The Matt Rooney Show' on 1210 WPHT every Sunday evening from 7-10PM EST.