How officials are handling the latest allegations of racist behavior in Vermont high school sports

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Earlier this month, the Middlebury Union High School girls’ basketball team refused to play at Enosburg Falls High School, citing an Instagram post with what they described as racist attacks from spectators. of Enosburg.

Last week, Vermont Edition host Connor Cyrus spoke to three student-athletes and the coach of Middlebury Union High School’s women’s basketball team about their decision to skip the game .

Here’s what Cady Pitner, a senior from Middlebury Union High School who plays for the women’s basketball team, explained why the Tigers decided against playing:

“We wanted to see a bit more action from them and within their school, because we had talked about not having fans and we weren’t really getting the support that we wanted. And it seemed that “They weren’t really doing much inside their schools to fix what happened, and kind of educate their students and change things. They seemed to be very focused on specific individuals rather than watching school as a whole and think about things they could do.

Lynn Cota is the superintendent of the Franklin Northwest Supervisory Union, of which Enosburg Falls High School is a member. She spoke on behalf of the administration and coaches of Enosburg, confirming that racist incidents have occurred and that the district is committed to creating a safe environment:

Unfortunately, two incidents with students making racist comments last winter and this fall occurred. When Middlebury educators shared the concerns of the women’s basketball team, we discussed a number of steps, such as increased supervision; and play the game in a closed gymnasium with only the teams. In the interest of all students, the educators at Enosburg and our team agreed to whatever was requested by the Middlebury team. In the end, the Middleburys side decided not to come to Enosburg or play at all.

More from Vermont Edition: Middlebury High Girls basketball players tell how racist comments affect their team

Middlebury aren’t the only side to have games canceled recently over racist remarks.

This month, Burlington High School and Rice Memorial High School postponed their games against Champlain Valley Union High School after posting a racist TikTok.

And over the past two years, allegations of racist and sexist comments have surfaced at a Burlington/South Burlington women’s volleyball game and a Hartford High School women’s soccer game against Fair Haven Union. High.

In the fall of 2021, complaints of racial slurs at a Winooski football game against Enosburg led to new protocols for coaches and sports officials in the state. But do these new protocols help?

Vermont Publics Mitch Wertlieb spoke with Jay Nichols, executive director of the Vermont Principals Association, about what the VPA is doing to address these issues and prevent future harassment at high school athletic events. Their conversation below has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Mitch Wertlieb: The VPA oversees high school athletics across the state. What is the VPA currently doing to address this issue of racism at sporting events?

Jay Nichols: So first of all, I was interviewed the other day by VTDigger. And in that article, I was quoted as saying that these are isolated events. And that’s not really the context of the article. We were talking about canceled games. And what I said is that these are isolated events. So these are not isolated events that have been reported, and we are hearing more and more reports, as we have made it easier for students, other stakeholders, to report their concerns. And because I think schools do a really good job of telling kids, ‘You know, it’s not right, we encourage you to express yourself’, and so children express themselves. From our point of view, this is a good thing.

You and I talked about it, I think over a year ago, actually, with the Winooski incident, and new protocols were put in place. How specifically are coaches and officials equipped to handle things like racist comments and behavior at sporting events?

Well, first of all, there’s a pre-game statement that needs to be read at every event, or put on lists when parents come in, some people have it posted on signs in their buildings. And it talks about expectations, possible interventions and restrictions that apply to all schools and teams.

Additionally, all coaches and officials must finish at the NFHS. This is the National Federation of High Schools’ implicit bias course. We demand it.

We also have the reporting form which is open and active all year round, where anyone can report anything to us. And there have been actions taken against individuals, I mean at least one coach has lost his job because of behavior reported on this site. And there have been disciplinary sanctions imposed on individuals, students and teams.

And there has been a lot of training for adults. You know, it’s different that you’re not allowed to come to a game if you’re going to harm the learning environment for the kids then you have to be fired. We have no problem removing you, we have no problem banning you from events. And usually it’s not a relative. In fact, most of the cases we’re talking about are people who were going to school or, in a few cases, students or former students who came back to an area who are now young adults and are doing real stupid choices, and everyone sees the consequences of those choices.

“What we’re telling you is that your behavior will not be tolerated. If it’s racist, sexist, singles out an individual player, coach or official and crosses that line, and when you do that, and we have several parents we have banned all year this year and we have no problem supporting schools and doing so.”

Jay Nichols, Vermont Principals’ Association

This incident, the most recent, did not occur during a game itself. It happened because an Instagram video with racist content was posted. So I wonder if the VPA needs to do more to extend its rules and protocol to what happens off the pitch as well as in the stands during a match, for example?

It’s a good question. And the truth is that schools have a limited ability to discipline students for extracurricular conduct. But what they can do, because the person involved was a student-athlete, they can take action against them as a student-athlete, and things that can include suspension of games, captains being removed from a team, there are a lot of different things they can take.

So in this particular case they took action against the student, they provided educational material to the student. And as far as we are concerned, the situation has been handled, and dealt with appropriately. The student made a mistake. And it is time that we renounce this mistake. And the teams that don’t play in the future lose the game.

What do you think of the Middlebury High School women’s basketball teams’ decision not to play at Enosburg Falls High School, do you support this decision?

Well, in this particular case, Middlebury and Enosburg weren’t able to come to a resolution, and Middlebury’s perspective was that they came to a resolution that they thought could work, but they were there arrived too late. And at that time, their players didn’t feel heard. And I’m not saying they weren’t heard. I think Enosburg do their best with that too. And because of that, I had conversations with officials from both school districts, and we decided that if the teams weren’t going to play, that the most appropriate course of action for this game would be to not play. But Middlebury’s evil that happened at an event in Enosburg has been verified. As a result of this, the children of Middlebury felt targeted and decided not to play, and we support that.

I wonder, since it’s nearly impossible to change people’s behaviors, you can only hope they’ll listen to a conversation and do better. Should the VPA, however, do more to broaden this conversation to have these conversations more often, more intensely, to let people know that this kind of behavior, whether in the stands or on social media, is not all simply not acceptable at Vermont High School of Sports?

Well, I think that’s a message we need to keep spreading. And I think we do that through local schools. Sometimes people talk about VPA and think VPA is this great organization. We have five employees for the entire state of Vermont. We are a member-driven organization. So it’s really the athletic directors, the school principals, the superintendents, the coaches and the fans themselves who have to do a lot of this work.

However, I want to disagree with one thing you said. You said it is not possible to change behavior. I think that’s not true. I think the research shows us that it is possible to change behaviors. What is not possible is to change beliefs. If you want to go to a basketball game and you have beliefs that we don’t agree with, whatever they are, that’s fine. Be quiet about it and encourage children appropriately. What we are telling you is that your behavior will not be tolerated. If it’s racist, sexist, targeting an individual player or a coach or an official and crossing that line, and when you do that, and we have several parents that we’ve banned for the whole year this year and we don’t have no problem supporting schools and doing that.

Do you have questions, comments or advice? Send us a message.

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