Oregon High School Placed on Probation After Racial Taunts at Basketball Game
An Oregon high school was placed on probation by the Oregon School Activities Association (OSAA) following a January basketball game where the opposing team was met with racial taunts from the crowd.Molalla High School’s probationary period started on March 31 — when the OSAA first released its findings to the two schools involved — and will last for one calendar year, according to a recent report from The Oregonian.
Below is an excerpt from The Oregonian’s report.
The incident in question stems from a boys basketball game on Jan. 28, 2022. During the game, Gladstone students claimed they faced racism and intimidation, including an adult displaying a photo of a confederate flag in their direction, a Molalla student adorned in blackface, and monkey noises chanted from the Molalla student section.
Three of the OSAA’s findings were redacted by Molalla School District, as they include personally identifiable information related to students. The one unredacted finding was that heckling from people seated in the Molalla student section, which included fans from another school, “was poor at times but was not determined to be racially motivated.”
The results of the other findings, which have been adopted by the OSAA, were enough to warrant probation for Molalla.
As part of its probation, Molalla High School will be required to take certain courses of action:
- Requiring training for all administrators and event management personnel (including adults and students) on protecting the safety of all spectators and guests. Specific focus is to be placed on hate symbols and their impact on minority groups inside and outside the community.
- Communicating with the OSAA how Molalla is addressing the incident in accordance with the school district’s own policy related to Oregon Administrative Rule (OAR) 581-022-2312 — Every Student Belongs.
- Reviewing how school spirit days/event themes are selected at Molalla High School in accordance with resources and guidelines from the Oregon Association of Student Councils (OASC).
- Implementing elements of the S.T.A.R. Initiative to include the posting of signage for sportsmanship and harassment reporting, communication procedures with opposing schools prior to and during contests, and utilizing the S.T.A.R. public address announcer sportsmanship scripts.
- Developing an incident response protocol and reporting procedure to be communicated to Molalla High School administrators and event management personnel outlining the immediate steps that must be taken to intervene if harassment/discrimination is reported/suspected during an event.
To read the full story from The Oregonian, click here.
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