Police Complete Investigation into Moline Football Racist Video

“Those involved are fellow high school football teammates,” he said, according to The Quad-City Times. “They are also individuals of both different and similar races to the victim. The students directly involved in the video are all friends.

“Regardless of these facts, we all agree that this is a disgusting way to treat a fellow teammate, a fellow human being, and most certainly a friend,” Gault said.

While the school district will be conducting a separate investigation for any school code violations or district policies, the report stated, the school has also received the initial summary of the police investigation.

“We all agree that regardless of the students viewed this as a joke, it is unacceptable behavior,” Gault said to the Quad-City Times. “This is a teaching moment for everyone and a reminder that we can do better. We can treat people better. We can be better friends. We can be better teammates. We can be better people. We can also stand up and confront situations when they are wrong. In doing so we can raise our morals and increase the respect we have for each other.”

The video showed a black player being coerced and forced by his teammates to sit in a locker filled with banana peels. The teammate recording the video appears to shout at him to sit in the locker or he’ll “break both your knees.” When the player did sit in the locker, his teammates erupted with yells and screams of “Yeah!” It began spreading across social media last Friday.

A few members of the school and the community took to social media to share their thoughts on the incident.

“With all confidence, I will say that the work of inclusivity and equity is not only an issue that is being addressed, but it is on the forefront with work being done every day,” Moline High School assistant boys basketball coach Adrian Ritchie posted on Facebook. “I wish there was a magic brush where we could make a couple of strokes and VOILA, racism is gone. But not unlike the current pandemic, tracking down the variations and mutations of racism is work that we ALL must continue.”

“I am absolutely horrified and deeply saddened by the video circulating social media,” Andy Waeyaert, school board member, said in a post on social media.

To read the full story from The Quad-City Times, click here.