Class President, Others Suspended For Insulting Athletes Via Tweet
The Heights High School senior class president was suspended from school and banned from graduation ceremonies after he posted a tweet that insinuated his school's athletics were nonexistent.
Wesley Teague, whose twitter bio reads, "Never met a babymama's mama who didnt like me, met a couple baby fathers though that wanna fight me!!" wrote:
"Heights U" is equivalent to WSU's football team
— Wesley Teague ✊ (@Rolltide_Teague) May 2, 2013
"Heights U" is a nickname that students at his high school gave to their schools athletics. It implies their high school's athletics play at a university level and as you probably assumed, it's mainly popular with underclassman. Wichita State University dropped their football program after the 1986 season.
One responder to Teague's tweet said, "They about to be on yo head somethin viciously," to which Teague replied in typical hubristic graduating senior fashion: "I have 4 more days, they can be on my head lol."
The next response quoted Teague's tweet followed by a sarcastic "Ooh what a class president we have," was met with the reply: "I'm not class president anymore."
Using the most teenage-y of all defenses, Teague has said the response to his joke is "completely unfair." He told the Wichita Eagle that his tweet is "a 100 percent truthful tweet and it wasn’t meant to offend a single person or group of people. … I only meant that ‘Heights U’ doesn’t exist because it doesn’t. We’re not a university.”
Calling the tweet "very inappropriate" the assistant principal Monique Arndt says Teague was suspended because he “acted to incite a disturbance.”
A spokesperson of the Wichita schools, Susan Arensman, stated in an email: “There was a negative reaction from many students, including threats of fights in the school… It caused a major disruption to the school day. Other students were also suspended." Arensman did not note how many other students had been suspended.
The faculty had selected Teague to give a speech at the school's senior breakfast and convocation ceremony on Friday. Now, he can't attend the ceremony, though school officials say that he could participate in the commencement ceremony on Sunday.
Teague is part of the school's track team, and his mother stated that her son's “main goal was to increase school spirit. He went to soccer games, volleyball games. He’s been very supportive of the athletic teams… He tried out for basketball his sophomore year and didn’t make it, but he was on the front row cheering for those kids every game. … He’s been their Number One supporter.” Teague's number one supporters have created the hashtags #TeamWesley and #FreeWesley.
It seems that Teague, who has continued tweeting, has not been having a good week overall. He says he was just called out for reckless driving and his girlfriend broke up with him:
I want nothing but my girlfriend right now. Forget the attention, the interviews, forget it all. I just want my girl @imperfectdazjai
— Wesley Teague ✊ (@Rolltide_Teague) May 8, 2013
And my girlfriend just broke up with me
— Wesley Teague ✊ (@Rolltide_Teague) May 8, 2013