By Ellen Chlumecky

March 30, 2015

As my father once said, “Any idiot can have a Twitter account.” Unfortunately in this day and age, this is all too true. Twitter is at people’s fingertips at any moment during the day. They can tweet any thought, any picture or video, any comment, any idea whenever they feel like it. It’s a great tool, in theory. Unless you put that tool in the hands of someone who feels comfortable bullying, sharing inappropriate comments, or someone who genuinely wants to do some permanent damage. This is the case with Bloomsburg University baseball player, Joey Casselberry.

Joey Casselberry took to Twitter when he found out that Disney was going to be making a movie about Mo’ne Davis’ life. He said, “WHAT A JOKE. That slut got rocked by Nevada.” His tweet without fail went viral. On Saturday, Casselberry tweeted an apology for what he said. He tweeted, “An example that one stupid tweet can ruin someone’s life and I couldn’t be more sorry about my actions last night. I please ask you to forgive me and truly understand that I am in no way shape or form a sexist and I am a huge fan of Mo’ne. She was quite an inspiration.”

While he desperately tried to take back what he said, it seemed to no avail. Casselberry is no longer on the baseball team’s roster. Bloomsburg University has also issued a statement regarding the matter. They stated, “Bloomsburg University is deeply saddened by what was written about Mo’ne Davis by one of our student-athletes. His words do not represent us. We take matter very seriously; addressed the issue with the student-athlete (who has been dismissed from team), coach, and the team.” This seems to be well-deserved justice in most people’s minds. However, Mo’ne Davis did not feel the same way.

Mo’ne Davis wants Joey Casselberry to be reinstated by his school. Davis believes that Casselberry deserves a second chance. She stated, “Everyone makes mistakes and everyone deserves a second chance. I know he didn’t mean it that type of way. I know people get tired of seeing me on TV, but you just gotta think about what you’re doing before you actually do it. I know right now he’s really hurt and I know how hard he worked just to get to where is right now. I was hurt on my part, but he’s hurt even more.”

The team said Casselberry violated the athletic department’s social media policy and the school’s code of conduct. While Bloomsburg says they respect Davis’ opinion and praise her for being incredibly mature about the situation, the school will not reinstate the baseball player. They are standing firm. Cyber bullying has become a major issues over the past few years and I believe that standing firm makes it clear that no matter who it is, a derogatory statement is unacceptable.

While it is very noble and mature of Mo’ne to issue such a statement, Casselberry should be punished regardless. Twitter is no longer a consequence-free world. People think that just because it’s a faceless forum on social media, they have no rules and they can’t get in trouble. There should be consequences for what people say.