Can a wrestling move be sexual battery?

[Goblinmonger]

http://www.fresnobee.com/2010/12/05/2185736/was-clovis-wrestlers-legal-move.html

In a crowded gym during practice in front of parents and coaches, the Buchanan High School wrestler tackled a teammate and executed a move his coaches taught him.
He inserted his fingers between the boy's buttocks.
It's called the "butt drag," in which a wrestler grabs a rival's butt cheek and puts fingers in the anus to get leverage. The move is widely used at matches around the country and has been around for decades.
But now it is at the center of an uproar after Buchanan High wrestler Preston Hill was expelled and charged with a sex crime for using it on a teammate.

I've seen wrestlers pass out due to a hold they were in. Should the wrestler putting that hold on a competitor be charged with assault and battery?

ETA: Follow up article with some good discussion about the move http://www.fresnobee.com/2010/12/06/2188036/wrestling-forced-to-deal-with.html#storylink=mirelated

[CBGLuthier]

1. Wow. Wrestlers are nasty fucking people.

Who new?

[Goblinmonger]

3. Way to broadbrush.

My son is a wrestler and a great kid. Thinking of becoming a Special Education teacher because he is so good with special needs kids. Perhaps you want to pinpoint your hatred a little more.

[CBGLuthier]

30. OK then. How's this

Wrestlers, who stick their fingers in other people's assholes, are nasty fucking people.

That better sunshine?

[Renew Deal]

16. HS wrestlers are not the people you see on TV.

They are student athletes.

[CBGLuthier]

29. Student athletes who are taught to stick their fingers in other people's asses.

I don't give two shits about tv wrestling. I know the fucking difference. What these kids are taught to do is wrong.

[TBF]

2. Better not try that in Sweden. nt

[NorthCarolina]

8. Not without a raincoat anyway. nt

[Liberal_in_LA]

4. ewwww

[SidDithers]

5. OK. I now know way too much about the Butt Drag...

from your second link. That's a, umm, highly detailed article. :)

Yikes.

Sid

[Kali]

6. OMG

I thought this was going to be about the charges against Assange

:yoiks:

[Phoonzang]

7. Wait...what...why?

That's just....why would there be a sport where someone does that?

[struggle4progress]

9. Google around. You'll find:

(1) Allegations like this arise from time to time and sometimes go to trial
(2) Nobody thinks anal penetration is part of any legitimate wrestling move -- and in particular the move "butt drag" is not supposed to involve anything like that
(3) It may be really hard to discern in real time what's actually happening as a couple of wrestlers flip around quickly on a mat

[Goblinmonger]

10. I agree with you on all points.

And that's not something you are going to hear very often.

[Ian David]

14. It's easy to catch them if they do this. Just smell their fingers. n/t

[TlalocW]

11. Yikes! I wrestled in high school and never heard of that one...

And my first pin was using a hold called (at least on my team), "The Saturday Night Ride," because it's a somewhat sexual looking hold (I guess the case could made that many are) where your opponent is on his back, and you're on top of him with your legs locked in his, spreading them apart.

TlalocW

[Ian David]

13. I have a feeling this is like the episode of "Friends" with the tailor who cups your balls. n/t

[Ian David]

12. I wrestled in high school, was never taught that move, and never had it used on me.

Worst thing I ever saw my coach approve was when Greg Brown asked the coach if he could cross-face the kid from the school for the deaf, by putting his arm across the kid's eyes, so he couldn't see his coach signing to him.

Coach said, "Greg, I wouldn't do it. But if you can live with yourself, go ahead."

[AngryAmish]

18. Wouldn't that be the school for the deaf?

If the kid is already blind I think signing to him would be futile. But what do I know.

[Ian David]

19. Yeah, that's what I meant. Thanks! n/t

[Renew Deal]

15. Not guilty

That's ridiculous.

The move is bizarre, but sometimes context is needed.

[Buns_of_Fire]

17. Eh. It's no worse than the "Atomic Wedgie." :-) nt

[nichomachus]

20. Isn't that the move the GOP just used on Obama?

Can we sue?

[GSLevel9]

21. lol... nt

[guitar man]

22. Ah yes, the old "butt drag"

Just curious, with female wrestlers is there a move called the "bowling ball"?

:hide:

:yoiks:

[Lucian]

23. If someone did that to me I'd say it's sexual battery.

[cbdo2007]

24. I can't think of anything about wrestling that IS NOT sexual battery.

It's two mostly naked people rubbing against each other, private parts are bound to get touched, expecially if it will give you an advantage and isn't against the rules.

I'm offended just watching wrestling.

[Goblinmonger]

I don't think you really understand wrestling, then.

It may look like that to the outsider, but it is a very physical fight going on. Very few moves within the rules require touching the "private parts." Wrestling is all about leverage, and if you think about center of gravity, those parts are right there.

[Goblinmonger]

26. Dupe n/t

[nichomachus]

27. Context is everything -- CPR would be sexual battery in a different context

[glen123098]

25. This is fucking ridiculous.

Whether or not this move is appropriate is definitely a matter of discussion. But to expel a high school kid and Charge him with a sex crime is fucking stupid. He was taught this move by his coaches, he thought it was fair to use, and now they want him to register as a sex criminal as if he molested someone. Seriously, has the prosecutor ever heard of prosecutorial discretion?

[Heywood J]

28. He *says* he was taught the move by his coach.

That has yet to be proven. Whether or not the coach taught it to him is irrelevant - his coach could have taught him to take head shots, kick his opponent in the crotch, or bring a baseball bat. It's his choice whether to act on this or not. The second article says the boy is/was a high school senior. A senior is or is nearly a legal adult and should be evaluating his own behavior from that standpoint. The kid he did this to was also 14 - this is usually a freshman. There's often a substantial size and weight difference between freshman and seniors that makes this take on another level entirely.

Judging by the comments from the other coaches, this is an illegal move that isn't part of the sport and not something that a wrestler signs up for. Even coaches who say the "butt drag" is part of wrestling don't seem to be referring to anal insertion, only grabbing a wrestler by the buttocks. Jamming one's fingers up the ass of a non-consenting participant is molestation by definition.