No word from Davenport Schools on allegations of racial slurs at basketball game

[ad_1]

It’s been 14 days since Davenport North High School boys’ basketball coach Marquez Davis took to social media and claimed three officials made racist remarks about his team during a a game at Pleasant Valley High School.

An official statement from the Davenport School District following the allegations said the district plans to work with the Pleasant Valley School District and the Mississippi Athletic Conference, or MAC, to investigate the allegations.

The status of any such review or investigation is unclear.

Reporters followed the district on Friday, Dec. 16 and Monday, Dec. 19, and district spokesman Mike Vondran said there were “no updates at this time.”

The Davenport School District has not commented on the investigation or submitted a review of the alleged incident to the Iowa High School Athletic Association.

People also read…

Pleasant Valley Schools Superintendent Brian Strusz said the Davenport School District is handling the investigation since the allegations were made by an employee of that district. Pleasant Valley officials reported what they knew about the incident to Davenport Schools and the Iowa High School Athletic Association.

Strusz said Mike Botts, official MAC coordinator, also reported on the incident.

Botts said he would not comment on the alleged incident until Davenport Schools releases a report.

An IHSAA spokesperson said it was ‘in the dark’ about the status of any investigation, despite Pleasant Valley contacting IHSAA after the allegations were posted on the page. Davis Facebook.

“Pleasant Valley contacted us and said an investigation would take place. We haven’t heard anything from the Davenport School District,” IHSAA spokesperson Chris Cuellar said. “We have never heard from Davenport North since the incident was reported.”

IHSAA basketball administrator Todd Tharp said he “…hasn’t heard anything more about this situation either,” Cuellar said.

Davenport School District officials released a statement Dec. 7, saying they plan to work collaboratively with Pleasant Valley and the Mississippi Athletic Conference on the incident review process.

“Both districts take conduct issues very seriously and are awaiting the results of the review conducted by the MAC Conference,” the statement said. “The Davenport Community School District is also launching an internal review immediately. The district will be working closely with Pleasant Valley Schools and the MAC Conference.”

Davis posted about the incident on Facebook, named the three referees and wrote that each had spoken racially derogatory terms towards him and his players during a Dec. 6 match at Pleasant Valley.

In the post, Davis pledged, “As the leader of a racially diverse basketball program in a public high school, I feel it’s my responsibility to make sure I do everything in my power so that it doesn’t get swept under the rug.”

He concluded the message by reiterating the commitment.

“…I won’t stop until something is done. Even then it won’t be enough, but you can bet I will NEVER leave it unanswered.”

A day after posting the message, Davis said he was not allowed to discuss the matter with the media, due to his coaching contract. He shared plans for another meeting with the district to be held on December 9.

The Quad-City Times reached one of the accused officials, who said he had been an umpire for 48 years, estimating that he and the other two Davis appointees had been on the officiating team for eight to 10 years.

The conference has asked me not to comment, he said. Everything will come out in the wash.

Be the first to know

Get local news delivered to your inbox!

[ad_2]