C<\/span>olorado baseball prospect Gavin Bell loves the game. On one social media account<\/a>, he lists his location as \u201cwherever the field is.\u201d Being the proactive young man, like many other high school prospects, he decided to reach out to the coaching staff of Texas Wesleyan University to gauge his chances of finding a spot on the school\u2019s roster. The response he got has made big waves.<\/p>\n \u201cThanks for the interest in our program. Unfortunately, we are not recruiting players from the state of Colorado,\u201d read the letter from<\/a> Texas Wesleyan head coach Mike Jeffcoat. \u201cIn the past, players have had trouble passing our drug test. We have made a decision to not take a chance on student-athletes from your state. You can thank your liberal politicians. Best of luck wherever you decide to play.\u201d<\/p>\n Bell forwarded the response to his coach Alan Dyer, who then forwarded it to several folks connected to the local baseball community, among them Darren Mckee, a Colorado-based sports journalist and radio personality.\u00a0\u201cHe sent it to six or seven of us like, \u2018Can you believe it?\u2019\u201d McKee told Cannabis Now.<\/p>\n McKee didn\u2019t know Bell, but he knew his coach Dyer. McKee has spent years fielding teams just below the high school level, and when his players moved on he would be in touch with the high school coaches, hence his relationship with Bell\u2019s coach Dyer.<\/p>\n \u201cI saw it and thought, that\u2019s insane,\u201d said McKee. \u201cI mean it\u2019s insane on so many levels. If you just want to talk about in a legal political thing, the state of Colorado<\/a> voted on this. It wasn\u2019t the legislature, it was the citizens. It didn\u2019t have anything to do with liberal politicians.\u201d<\/p>\n McKee noted that, in fact, many liberal politicians like Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper<\/a> were against the effort.<\/p>\n \u201cThe thought that we\u2019re all sitting around here in Colorado high all the time is preposterous,\u201d said McKee.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n \u201cI mean, I understand the jokes,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are probably three legal weed places within two miles of my house, but it\u2019s a none factor here. It doesn\u2019t matter. If you are not into smoking marijuana, and I am not into smoking marijuana, it doesn\u2019t matter if Euflora is a mile down the street from me.\u201d<\/p>\n McKee said he doesn\u2019t drink whiskey either, but there is basically a liquor store in his backyard.<\/p>\n According to McKee, Bell is competing at the highest level in the state.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have kids who come out of local high schools in our area and play Division I and professional baseball all the time,\u201d said McKee. \u201cSo the team [Bell] is on won the 5A [division], which in our state is the absolute top. He was in the system. My son plays down the street, I know how difficult this is. That\u2019s what offended me the most, is that a coach would just so flippantly treat a kid like that who is just looking for an opportunity to play.\u201d<\/p>\n After running through this tale of disgust in his head, McKee decided to screenshot the letter and share it with his Twitter followers, before he spoke briefly on the subject on his radio show. Less than 24 hours later, Texas Wesleyan had fired Jeffcoat.<\/p>\n The story picked up traction quick. As more and more outlets picked up the story, McKee\u2019s initial tweet garnered thousands of likes and retweets. Texas Wesleyan issued a statement the evening of Feb. 28, after McKee broke the story in the afternoon.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are aware of the email sent by our baseball coach, and the comments he made are in no way a reflection of Texas Wesleyan University, its values or its recruiting practices,\u201d read the university\u2019s response<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n They also noted the immediate commencement of an investigation into the charges. It was a quick one.\u00a0The following afternoon, Texas Wesleyan held a press conference announcing: \u201cMike Jeffcoat is no longer an employee here\u2026 We do not tolerate discrimination. Texas Wesleyan values our students, values our student-athletes, and values our diverse and inclusive campus.\u201d<\/p>\n Jeffcoat\u2019s letter to Bell also raised the ire of longtime cannabis advocates and not just baseball aficionados. Mason Tvert of VS Strategies<\/a>, who helped lead the effort to legalize marijuana in Colorado, was glad to see the university take action.<\/p>\n \u201cThe public\u2019s attitude toward cannabis is evolving, but there are still plenty of bigots out there,\u201d Tvert told Cannabis Now. \u201cIt is nice to see the university is distancing itself from this coach\u2019s clearly outdated views and inappropriate behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n Dr. Amanda Reiman, who lectures at UC Berkeley and works with the Drug Policy Alliance, said that she had \u201cno words\u201d for the higher education institution\u2019s attitude toward cannabis.<\/p>\n \u201cThat a young person trying to further their education and career would be faced with discrimination that extends not to their own personal viewpoints, but the political decisions of the state they live in\u2026 but I guess it should be no surprise given the state of the country today,\u201d said Reiman. \u201cI am grateful that Texas Wesleyan took swift action in rebuking this coach\u2019s behavior and removing them from the university.\u201d<\/p>\n TELL US,<\/strong> have you faced discrimination for your state\u2019s laws?<\/p>\n The post Texas College Fires Baseball Coach Over Pot Discrimination in Recruiting<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
A Texas baseball coach is looking for a new dugout after discriminating against recruits from Colorado over the state\u2019s marijuana laws. Colorado baseball prospect Gavin Bell loves the game. On one social media account, he lists his location as \u201cwherever the field is.\u201d Being the proactive young man, like manyContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[50,21,99,3537,726],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24136"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24136"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24137,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24136\/revisions\/24137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: Texas College Fires Baseball Coach Over Pot Discrimination in Recruiting<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"