First-Place Winner of Constantine Cannon’s Whistleblower Essay Contest: Laney Fox
The Constantine Cannon whistleblower team is thrilled to share with you the First-Place Winner of the firm’s Third Law School Scholarship Essay Contest on the importance of whistleblowers. That award (and the $1000 prize) goes to Laney Fox, a first-year student at Florida State University College of Law.
In her powerful essay, Laney describes her own experience as a college athlete and the culture of silence she confronted within the world of college sports where athletes are discouraged from reporting abuse and misconduct. Despite fulfilling her childhood dream of playing college basketball, Laney faced a troubling environment where racism and social injustice were ignored by her university and coaching staff. When she finally decided to speak up to create a positive change, she and the teammates who joined her were forced off the team for challenging the status quo. This experience led Laney to become a whistleblower, sharing her story publicly and facing the harsh consequences of defying institutional norms. Her journey has reshaped her career path, instilling in her a “profound passion to help give a voice to the voiceless and fight for justice on any and all levels.”
We congratulate Laney for taking such a strong stand against injustice and using her incredible whistleblower journey as a shining example of what it means to bring truth to power. We also congratulate Laney for her first-place finish where she was up against scores of law students from across the country.
We will be launching our next Scholarship Essay Contest in the coming weeks, so stay tuned. In the meantime, if you’re not already a subscriber to our weekly newsletter, please sign up today so you stay up to date on the latest whistleblower and fraud news and developments.
Please read Laney’s winning essay below.
‘The Importance of Whistleblowers’
By Laney Fox
The NCAA fosters a culture of silence with an attitude of ‘what happens in the locker room stays in the locker room.’ This is promoted by athletic admin, coaches and staff. You are not supposed to “snitch” on NCAA violations, abusive coaching or team misconduct. This culture has led athletes to commit suicide, die from heat exhaustion/heart failure and made the sport that so many of us once loved, absolutely dreadful.
As a college freshman [at the time this misconduct took place], a lot of what was going on around me was unsettling, but I was afraid of the repercussions for speaking out. I was fulfilling my childhood dream by playing college basketball and I was determined not to lose my $55,000 scholarship. Nonetheless, the mental and emotional impact of remaining silent was so heavy that I decided to join more clubs and programs after my freshman year, hoping to find my voice.
I soon found my voice in the wake of social unrest throughout our country. Following the murder of George Floyd and when Breonna Taylor’s murderers weren’t convicted, I could no longer stay silent. After many racially insensitive players on the team made comments like “I don’t understand why Black people are so upset” and “Slaves were treated like family,” 8 others and I spoke out. We still kept it ‘in house’, and had a symposium with the Athletic Director, coaching staff and players to discuss ignorance, racism and white fragility. Subsequent to the symposium, many of us were concerned when the coaching staff forbade us from discussing racism any further.
Just a few months later, all nine anti-racist women (5 Black and 4 White) who attempted to promote racial understanding on the team were forced out or cut from the program for not ‘fitting the culture.’ I had the choice to stay silent and transfer to a new university or speak out with the risk of never playing college basketball again. I realized that my dream of playing college basketball was small compared to the growing need to change the system.
Ultimately, I went public with our story––a four-page open letter on social media and kept all other eight women anonymous; it garnered over a million views worldwide.
I was soon made well aware of the impacts of whistleblowing; from being defamed publicly by the University President to very little recruitment calls to continue my basketball career. All nine of us were determined to hold the university accountable by speaking with news outlets and organizing protests demanding transparency and accountability. Since, we have hired attorneys and with their help we are suing the university for breach of contract and libel.
My experience of being a whistleblower has changed the trajectory of my legal career. I always knew I wanted to be a lawyer. However, I now have a profound passion to help give a voice to the voiceless and fight for justice on any and all levels.