Students At Washington Girls High School Basketball Game Shout Racist Remarks At Players
Video of students at a high school girls basketball game in Washington state yelling racist remarks at two sisters has gone viral, and now the school is responding.
The footage shows each time one of the sisters, both of whom are students of color, who play for Connell High School in Connell, Wa., went to shoot, a group of people in the bleachers would shout “monkey” and make monkey noises or gestures. Once the coach of the rival team, Zillah High School noticed what was happening, she brought it to the attention of Connell’s athletic director.
"The athletic director directed the students to stop the behavior and then put himself in a position near the students to monitor their behavior," said Jim Jacobs, superintendent of North Franklin School District, according to local station KNDO.
Doug Burge, the superintendent of the Zillah School District, said officials there will be aiding in an investigation of what happened.
"In Zillah School District, we value diversity and strive to create schools and environments that are both physically safe and emotionally nurturing for our students,” Burge said, according to KNDO. “We take these allegations very seriously and are committed to aiding in Connell School District's investigation to the best of our abilities.”
The station also says they reached out to a Connell student who said racism was not their intent.
"So we understood and went to apologize to the coach and got attacked by parents saying we just apologized because we got caught, but we truly didn't mean it to be racist at all,” explained the student. “Some of us didn't know it was a racist term."
None of the victims of the racist actions have made public statements about the incident.
