Curt Schilling Takes On Twitter Trolls After Vulgar Attacks on Daughter
Curt Schilling is staring down yet another formidable opponent: Social media trolls.
Schilling joined WEEI Tuesday morning and talked about the graphic and vulgar tweets he received about his daughter.
Schilling said he was surprised at how much attention the story received but he was happy to expose the trolls for their actions. He added that the trolls could be forced to register as sex offenders for some of the vulgar messages that were sent.
“This is with them for the rest of their lives. This is not a mistake,’’ Schilling said. Let me be very clear, these kids didn’t make a mistake. They made conscious decisions to talk about rape, and sex and defiling a 17-year-old girl. What part of the news are these people not seeing on a daily basis where kids on a daily basis are killing themselves from being cyber bullied?’’
“I am a guy. Since I’ve been here I’ve said a million things I wish I hadn’t, but this is not being a guy,’’ Schilling said. “There is nothing about this that is manly.’’
The former Boston Red Sox pitcher and current ESPN analyst published an impassioned, personal blog post on Sunday after his daughter was the subject of vile comments on Twitter.
“If you are a dad this is something you well know already, if you are a dad with a daughter this is likely to get your blood going,’’ Schilling wrote on his 38 Pitches blog. “If you are a boy, or young man, or husband, and you haven’t experienced children yet, or haven’t had a daughter, it’s next to impossible for you to understand.’’
CLICK HERE to read the full blog post
The offensive messages were triggered by Schilling’s note of congratulations to his daughter on Feb. 25 after she was accepted to college.
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As noted by Schilling, that simple, positive message led to several violent, sexist messages on Twitter. “And tweets with the word rape, bloody underwear and pretty much every other vulgar and defiling word you could likely fathom began to follow,’’ Schilling recounted.
In his subsequent blog post titled “The world we live in…Man has it changed. ADDENDUM!’’, Schilling targeted two college students in New Jersey as being among the perpetrators, and noted that several of those involved in the vulgar episode were college athletes. Brookdale Community College announced that one of the Twitter abusers identified by Schilling was suspended. According to Schilling’s blog post, this student hosts a radio show on the school’s station.
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The outspoken 216-game winner contrasted the impact of this distressing incident involving his daughter with his other social media battles involving his political beliefs and team affiliations.
“My daughter comes to me beyond upset. She didn’t do anything, she never said anything, yet she’s now receiving personal messages with guys saying things to her, well let’s just say I can’t repeat and I’m getting beyond angry thinking about it,’’ he wrote.
In his blog post, Schilling made it clear that he wanted people who engaged in anti-social behavior of this sort to be held accountable. “These boys have yet to understand one of life’s most important lessons,’’ he wrote.
“In the real world you get held accountable for the things you say and if you are not careful that can mean some different things.’’
As a postscript to his blog post, Schilling apologized for potentially embarrassing his daughter by calling attention to the cyberbullying, but she seemed to appreciate the support.
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