As they
competed
in a
high
school
basketball
game in
May,
Talani
Oliver
and her
teammate
and
younger
sister,
Mia
Hicks-Oliver,
heard
someone
in the
crowd
yell a
racist
epithet
in their
direction.
Neither
said
anything
to the
crowd.
"It
really
did
change a
lot of
things.
It
changed
them, as
people,"
said
Lauria
Oliver,
who is
White.
(Photo
by
Washington
Post) |
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As fans
return
to high
school
sports,
officials
say
student
behavior
has
never
been
worse
Roman
Stubbs,
The
Washington
Post
As they
competed
in a
high
school
basketball
game in
May,
Talani
Oliver
and her
teammate
and
younger
sister,
Mia
Hicks-Oliver,
heard
someone
in the
crowd
yell a
racist
epithet
in their
direction.
Neither
said
anything
to the
crowd.
At
another
point in
the
game,
the
Oliver
sisters,
who are
Black
and play
for
their
local
high
school
team in
Zillah,
Wash.,
heard
fans
from the
opposing
student
section
making
monkey
noises
and
gestures.
It
didn't
stop as
the
girls
tried to
make
their
way to
the
team's
bus
after
the
game,
they
later
told
their
mother,
who was
not in
attendance.
When
Lauria
Oliver
arrived
to pick
her
daughters
up, she
noticed
many of
their
teammates
crying.
She
could
see the
devastation
on her
daughters'
faces.
"It
really
did
change a
lot of
things.
It
changed
them, as
people,"
said
Lauria
Oliver,
who is
White.
"It was
almost
like we
were in
a
Twilight
Zone.
You read
about
this
happening
in other
places,
but
until it
happens
to you .
. . you
really
don't
know how
you're
going to
feel."
Since
the
return
of
spectators
to high
school
sporting
events
following
the
pandemic
shutdown,
many
young
athletes
across
the
country
have
experienced
similar
hate
speech
and
other
abuse.
School
officials
have
reported
problematic
fan
behavior
ranging
from
students
using
foul
language,
making
obscene
gestures,
throwing
objects,
and
physically
fighting.
The
uptick
also has
included
spectators
hurling
sexually
demeaning
and
racist
language
at young
athletes.
Over the
past
year
alone,
alleged
incidents
of abuse
by fans
have
been
reported
in
California,
Tennessee,
Michigan,
Vermont,
Massachusetts,
Pennsylvania,
Oklahoma,
Maryland
and New
York,
among
other
states,
and some
longtime
stakeholders
in high
school
sports
agree:
the
behavior
among
students
in the
stands
has
never
been
worse.
That has
come as
schools
across
the
country
have
reported
a surge
in
student
misbehavior,
which
many
educators
believe
is a
reflection
of the
stress
the
pandemic
has
placed
on
teens.
"Sports
is under
the
microscope
. . .
but
where
it's
really
happening
is in
our
schools
and in
society.
It's
happening
everywhere,"
said Bob
Baldwin,
a
veteran
superintendent
and
coach
who is
executive
director
of the
Massachusetts
Interscholastic
Athletic
Association.
"Number
one, we
haven't
had
structure.
We
haven't
had
routine.
In some
cases, a
kid who
was a
junior
in high
school
never
really
went
through
their
full
freshman
year, so
they
don't
even
know the
ropes on
how to
behave.
"It's a
microcosm
of
society
in
general,"
Baldwin
continued.
"People's
behavior
is
dysregulated.
It's,
unfortunately,
as bad
as I've
seen
it."
The
incident
in
Washington
had
echoes
of
others
across
the
country.
A high
school
cheer
team in
California
endured
racist
taunts
from
students
in
August.
In
Montgomery
County,
Md.,
where in
October
officials
had to
move up
football
games to
the
afternoon
over
safety
concerns
after
students
fought
at a
game,
members
of a
girl's
soccer
team at
Einstein
High
School -
a more
diverse
and less
affluent
school -
accused
Sherwood
High
School
spectators
of
making
racist
remarks
during
multiple
games.
A video
of the
chants
directed
toward
the
Oliver
sisters
made by
some in
the
Connell
High
School
student
section
went
viral,
and in
the
aftermath,
the
Washington
Interscholastic
Athletic
Association
banned
the
school's
girls
basketball
team
from
playing
in the
state
playoffs.
That
move was
eventually
reversed
after
Connell
appealed
the
decision,
citing
state
law, but
the
school
was
levied
with
additional
punishment,
including
a $1,000
fine.
Student
fans
were
barred
from
attending
games
for the
rest of
the year
and the
school
will not
be able
to host
games
until
next
year.
Still,
as
parents
sent
more
videos
to her
in the
aftermath
of the
incident,
Lauria
Oliver
was
alarmed
by the
fact
that no
one in
the gym
from
Connell
stopped
the
students'
behavior
that
day. The
school's
athletic
director
issued
an
apology
on
Facebook
four
days
later.
"I don't
think
one
thing
was
learned
from
their
student
body at
all, I
really
don't,"
Oliver
said. "I
did have
one
parent
from
Connell
email me
and told
me I
failed
as a
parent
because
my
children
are
different
and I
should
have
prepared
them
better
for what
was
happening.
I
couldn't
believe
she did
that,
but she
did."
Connell's
principal,
Bill
Walker,
did not
respond
to a
request
for
comment.
In
Massachusetts,
Baldwin
has
dealt
with
several
major
cases in
his
first
fall on
the job:
a fight
broke
out
earlier
in a
September
game
after
players
from
Roxbury
Prep
said
they
were
called
racist
slurs by
Georgetown
High
School
players
and
fans. In
November,
Brockton
High
School
students
were
allegedly
subject
to
racist
and
homophobic
remarks
while
performing
at a
football
game.
"When we
look at
the
racial
instances,
and the
really
horrific
things
that are
said and
done . .
. we
have
taken
what we
might
consider
bad
sportsmanship
to a new
level,"
said
Karissa
Niehoff,
the
executive
director
of the
National
Federation
of State
High
School
Associations,
which
oversees
most
high
school
sports
across
the
country.
"It's
bad
sportsmanship,
of
course.
But
that's
criminal.
"I think
there's
an
uptick
in the
opportunity
to do
it. And
they're
doing
it,"
Niehoff
continued.
"But
there's
also an
uptick
in
awareness,
there's
an
uptick
in
voice."
The
girls'
soccer
team at
Hartford
High
School
in
Vermont
found
its
voice in
October.
The
team's
longtime
coach,
Jeff
Acker,
could
tell
"something
was
wrong"
during a
game at
Fair
Haven
Union
High
School,
but
because
the
opposing
student
section
was on
the
other
side of
the
field,
he
didn't
know
exactly
what.
The
crowd
was
cheering
during
odd
times,
and his
players'
body
language
was off.
With
about
six
minutes
to play,
during a
stoppage,
one of
his
players
simply
walked
off the
pitch,
and
Acker
quickly
was told
why: She
was
being
sexually
harassed
by
students
in the
opposing
crowd.
Acker
walked
onto the
field
and
pulled
his
entire
team,
telling
them:
"We're
out of
here."
An
investigation
by Fair
Haven
Union's
school
district
later
found
that
several
of the
school's
students
had made
inappropriate
comments,
including
"calling
out
opposing
players
by name
and
number,
moaning
and
barking,"
and
would be
disciplined,
according
to a
statement.
"Good
for her,
for
standing
up for
herself
and then
be able
to tell
me what
had
happened,"
Acker
said.
"What
you
realize
is, this
kind of
stuff
isn't
actually
new,
that it
happens
a lot.
The
typical
response
from
high
school
girls is
that
they're
embarrassed,
they're
ashamed,
they
don't
want to
make a
big
deal. .
. . This
girl
said no,
I'm not
doing
that.
And her
teammates,
who had
heard it
all,
stood up
for her,
and
said,
'this is
what
happened,
this is
not
okay.'"
It was
not the
only
high-profile
story of
a female
athlete
enduring
sexual
harassment
during a
game
that
month.
In
Pennsylvania,
members
of a
student
section
chanted
sexually
explicit
vulgarities
at an
opposing
goalie
who was
the only
female
player
on the
team.
The
Pennsylvania
Interscholastic
Hockey
League
later
banned
students
at
Armstrong
High
School
from
attending
any
varsity
hockey
games
for the
rest of
the
season,
and now
requires
the
school
to
assign
an
administrator
or
faculty
member
to
attend
each
home and
away
game to
monitor
fans for
inappropriate
behavior.
"We
haven't
had
structure
or
routine
for two
years
for
kids, so
you've
got
that,"
Baldwin
said.
"You've
also got
kids
watching
adults
over the
last two
years
behave
in ways
that are
not
upstanding,
either.
So we're
just
calling
for
people
to be
kind and
more
civil."
In
Vermont,
the
incident
at
Hartford
and
other
recent
cases of
inappropriate
student
fan
behavior
has
accelerated
the
urgency
to find
solutions
to the
problem.
The
Vermont
Principal's
Association
developed
a
statement
to be
read
before
every
game
that
outlines
policies
on
discrimination
and
verbal
abuse
from
spectators.
The
organization's
diversity,
equity
and
inclusion
committee,
which
launched
last
year,
has
built a
formal
complaint
process
and is
aiming
to log
abuses
to track
areas,
schools
or
individuals
who are
repeat
offenders.
"It's
like
when
you're
welcoming
somebody
into
your
home,"
said
Mike
Jabour,
the
athletic
director
at South
Burlington
and the
co-chair
of the
diversity
committee.
"That
person
is
coming
into
your
home and
thinking
they're
going to
be
treated
with
respect.
And when
that
doesn't
happen,
that
falls on
you.
When
they
come to
our
school
and
community,
if
they're
disrespected
in any
way, and
there is
harm
that has
been
done,
that's
our
fault.
And we
need to
correct
that
behavior
and deal
with it
immediately."
In
Washington,
Lauria
Oliver
still
struggles
with the
fact
that she
wasn't
at the
game
with her
daughters
that
night in
May. She
had to
work and
wasn't
able to
make the
hour-and-a-half
trip.
"Why was
I not
there? I
was not
there to
protect
my
children,"
she says
she will
often
think to
herself,
and now
she does
not
allow
them to
go
anywhere
alone.
Her
husband
died
when her
daughters
were
young,
she
said,
and now
with
eight
children
in the
house,
she
always
has
someone
go with
her
girls to
their
sporting
events.
They are
back on
the
court
this
winter
for
Zillah,
and
their
mother
plans to
be at
this
season's
game
against
Connell.
Mia
always
looks in
the
crowd to
see if
there
are any
Black
people,
her
mother
said,
and
listens
to all
the
noises
people
are
making.
She
never
did that
before
last
May.
Lauria
asked
her why.
"She
said, 'I
don't
know. I
just
want to
see what
I'm up
against.'"
Talani
has lost
passion
for the
game,
"just
lost
that
little
light
she
had,"
according
to her
mother.
Maybe
it's
that
she's
getting
older,
Lauria
wonders.
She
knows
it's
likely
more
than
that.
"That
was
their
place
where
they
shine,"
she
said.
"That's
not
their
safe
place
anymore.
Being on
that
court,
it
doesn't
give
them a
good
feeling
anymore."
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