The code of silence Lamar University is applying to its softball program’s continuing imbroglio is akin to Kayo Dugan’s in “On the Waterfront”: deaf and dumb.

It explains nothing, teaches nothing, resolves nothing.

In short, Lamar has fired softball coach Holly Bruder but refused to say why. That can’t satisfy anyone but the insiders, who want to style this developing scandal as a “personnel matter.”

The backstory appears to be something of this sort, according to various Beaumont news media reports: Starting catcher Paige Holmes, a practicing Catholic, complained that a coach ordered her to eat meat on a Friday in Lent, over her protests, when the tuna she ordered didn’t arrive at a restaurant. Holmes attempted later to speak with Bruder about what she believed to be an act of insensitivity toward the practice of her faith, and said Bruder wouldn’t meet with her.

When Holmes complained to the athletic department, according to print and broadcast reports, Bruder benched her for most of the rest of the season.

A handful of teammates say Holmes misrepresented what happened. The athletic department, after its own investigation, conceded a violation of an unnamed university policy. Holmes’ depiction of events suggests coaches’ retaliation against the player.

The coach and her defenders say it isn’t so. In short, it’s a mess.

Maybe some sharp lawyers told them all to shut up — legal action is imminent — and Lamar’s athletic department, prodded for more explanation, answered with a vanilla statement Tuesday that used 80 words to say almost nothing:

“We don’t typically comment on personnel matters like this, but I can tell you that we conducted a thorough investigation regarding a violation of university policy pertaining to the softball program. Lamar University’s primary mission is to educate our students. Any allegation that could affect the well-being and success of our students is taken very seriously. We are moving forward with the search for a new head coach. I’m sure we’ll have more details on that in the coming weeks.”

Got it?

Social media remains abuzz with this story. Softball fans, including some adults, have turned on Holmes, who is 20. Holmes’ fellow Roman Catholics — Full disclosure: I am one — appreciate the severity of the offense if it happened as explained. If it has been explained, that explanation didn’t come from the university.

What Lamar University — I’m not talking about the athletic department, but the president’s office — might have done is take a robust, full-throated stand in defense of religious freedom. That won’t be coming, a campus spokesman said in the spirit of Kayo Dugan. By remaining deaf and dumb, Lamar as an institution looks weak, morally timid.

The university might have explained how precious our individual rights, afforded to us by the Constitution and its amendments, really are. Lamar might have explained that the First Amendment, which protects our freedom of worship, is not just a jumble of words on a cold page; it speaks to who we individuals are to our very core.

That might have educated students, which Lamar University insists is its primary mission. We heard that somewhere.

Ken Stickney is editor of The Port Arthur News.