Kentucky basketball player Tai Wynyard was suspended shortly after reports surfaced that he brought an armed student as his bodyguard to a party.
The Courier Journal reported the following:
University of Kentucky fraternity and sorority members used a group messaging app to warn each other last month about a potentially dangerous student who carried a gun to a party to protect UK basketball player Tai Wynyard.
…
The Group Me message circulated by sorority members in January stated: “there is a (person) showing up to parties with the basketball player Tai Wynyard. (The person) showed up last night to our rush party and … had a gun … said he was ‘protecting’ Wynyard. … If you go out tonight and see (person) DO NOT APPROACH (person). Share this to EVERY SISTER.”
The same report also claims the basketball program wouldn’t confirm or deny their knowledge, but Wynyard was suspended this week after the news started circulating. He has also missed significant time with a back injury, so this suspension has little to no impact on the Wildcats season.
Let me be crystal clear: attending a college party with a gun is one of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard of. I can’t believe I even had to type those words. There is booze flowing, dumb people everywhere and ample opportunities for stupid things to happen.
I actually happen to have a little knowledge of how schools handle actual real threats of violence against students who are easily identifiable. The school will generally provide armed police officers to serve as protection until the person responsible for the threat has been brought into custody, and you’re damn sure not going to any parties with a police escort. Police officers and other professionals with guns are trained to do those jobs. They’re not partying, getting drunk and carrying loaded weapons.
This kid needs to sit for a very long time if he allowed a friend to bring a gun to a party and pretend to be his bodyguard. The last thing I or anybody else wants around us while getting tanked is a moron with a deadly weapon. The stupidity of some people is just beyond belief.
Hopefully Coach Calipari deals with this in the hardest way possible.