New protocols for Vermont high school sporting events after incidents of racist and gender-based harassment during games

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Winooski is Vermont’s most racially diverse school district, and in September a high school boys’ soccer game between Winooski and Enosburg Falls was marred by reports that some Enosburg students and spectators hurled racist slurs at Winooski players.

The audio for this story will be posted.

A Winooski High School investigation concluded that three Enosburg students used racist language against his players. But Enosburg Falls High School says its own investigation found no such evidence.

Winooski Superintendent Sean McMannon called on the Vermont Principals’ Association, which oversees high school athletics, to “implement strong anti-racism training for coaches and match officials at sporting events.”

In the past month, allegations of similar racist – as well as sexist – harassment were reported by Vermont media during a Burlington / South Burlington High School girls’ volleyball game and at a football game. between Hartford High School Girls vs. Fair Haven Union High.

VPR’s Mitch Wertlieb spoke with Jay Nichols, executive director of the Vermont Principals’ Association, about what the VPA is doing to resolve the issue and investigate future reports of harassment. Their conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Mitch Wertlieb: What made you and the Vermont Principals’ Association decide that a line has been crossed and something needs to be done?

Jay Nichols: We’ve been doing anti-racism work for four years, trying to address these issues when they happen in schools, in your own local school. And we haven’t had a lot of these incidents happening from school to school, and when it does, in Vermont traditionally it’s been handled at the local school level.

But it became pretty clear in this incident [at the Winooski/Enosburg Falls game] that no school, schools together were not able to manage it. What happened during the game, officials say, was never reported to them. No event administrator had reported this to them during the match.

And because of that, and because we realize that in a society that we live in, these kinds of things can certainly happen, we decided – with the support of superintendents and athletic directors – that we wanted to put more things in place to help in those kinds of situations.

So what actions is the VPA taking?

What we have done is we have developed a very clear statement to read in games, with the expectations and the potential consequences if the expectations are not met.

“We have developed a very clear statement to read in matches, with expectations and potential consequences if expectations are not met… this calls for a potential ejection from the event [or] the event ends early and sends everyone home. ”

Jay Nichols, Executive Director of the Vermont Principals’ Association

And in this [statement], it calls for a potential ejection of the event, [or] the event ending early and sending everyone home is also a possibility.

The game could be lost, or future games, if a school or school fans engage in this behavior. We could resume the game without fans; officials and coaches could just tell all the fans that they have to go at that point. The game could be rescheduled without fans. And, other restrictions, suspensions of future presence and participation may occur.

Many of these tools were already in place, but because we didn’t have to deal with them a lot, a lot of officials and new athletic directors and managers didn’t realize that they [could] always do this stuff, so we want to make it very clear that this can happen.

We have also added an online reporting system where anyone can report an event, because it all starts, of course, at the local level. And officials and coaches are trained every year on implicit bias. This is a requirement that we already had in place. It was supposed to start with the officials in the fall of next year, but because everything is going, we moved that forward.

If someone calls this online portal and says they have witnessed something disturbing, how would the VPA determine if it warrants an investigation? And if so, how would it be studied?

The way it would be studied is similar to the way things are studied now: it is done at the local school level.

“We’ve had four or five reports so far, since we put this in place, and in only one of those cases, had the athletic director not already reported it to them.”

Jay Nichols, Executive Director of the Vermont Principals’ Association

If a parent from “XYZ School” says they’ve heard these things happening, the first thing we do is let the two athletic directors involved, unless they’ve already been told.

We’ve had four or five reports so far since we uploaded this [in September], and in only one of these cases, the athletic director had not already reported it to him.

I imagine it gets a little trickier, however, in a case like Winooski and Enosburg, where there isn’t necessarily any video or audio evidence recorded, and two separate investigations have taken place, and both schools have arrived. to very different conclusions about what happened.

I don’t know if they came to any different conclusions about what happened. I think they came to the conclusion that, what happened – which was reported several days after the event, before anyone reported anything – that there was no evidence of that.

Winooski had players who said Enosburg students and Enosburg parents made racist comments.

When Enosburg conducted his investigation, they interviewed officials, coaches, administrators who were on duty, and no one on either side was able to substantiate those claims either.

So because of that, there isn’t much that either school can do. What we could do is bring in a third party investigator to interview, if both school districts want us to do that, and that’s an option we gave to both school districts.

And have you heard from any of the school districts if they are open to this third-party investigator?

I think they’re both open to it. One of them was immediately open to this, the other wants to see more of the process, what it is going to be about.

And I think at this point the Superintendents Association, and we as the VPA see this as, what can we put in place for events that happen like this in the future?

What do you say to a parent, someone who says, “Hey, I can say whatever I want in a game is America,” that sort of thing?

I tell him, “Oh no, you can’t!

You know, the public body – in this case the school district or the VPA, if we’re having a tournament – has a compelling state interest. And that is also part of the freedom of expression. And that overriding interest of the state is to ensure that the event unfolds in a way that children are not harmed, either physically or verbally.

“If you’re going to target someone, or do something like hazing, harassing or bullying or attacking a protected class, we’re not going to have that. You swear at officials, or swear at people, we’re not going to have. that.”

Jay Nichols, Executive Director of the Vermont Principals’ Association

So any kind of hazing, harassment, bullying, from the stands, any kind of comments related to a person’s race, gender, religion, ethnic differences, or disability, or something like that, all of that. forbidden. And we can remove anyone from any event for that, and we can remove them for as long as we want. We could ban a parent from attending another Vermont Principals’ Association event, which would mean any high school sporting event in the state.

So they don’t have this absolute right. It is a misnomer that [many] people think. You know, your freedom of speech ends where my nose begins, and that also means where my ears begin.

So if you want to cheer on your team, go for it. If you want to shout “Come on, ref! ” it’s good too. But if you’re going to target someone, or do something like hazing, harassing, intimidating, or attacking a protected class, we won’t have that. You swear at officials, or swear at people, we’re not going to have that.

Are you convinced that these measures will improve things in the future?

I’m sure they’re going to make it better, you know, because it’s not just about sport. It’s also, you know, other events that we do.

The event can be stopped. It can be canceled. People can be sent home. And maybe we need to make an example of some people who don’t get the message. And I hope that will make everyone understand that we are serious about this and our schools are serious about it.

Do you have questions, comments or concerns? Drop us a line or tweet your thoughts at @mwertlieb.

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