During a school-sanctioned student livestream of a Penn High School boys’ basketball game in South Bend, Ind., a student used a racial slur and directed it to a member of the opposing team. The stream was quickly shut down and removed from the school’s website, but now community members and advocacy groups are calling for stronger disciplinary actions.
According to WSBT, Black Lives Matter South Bend, the NAACP and some local leaders want athletics to be suspended at South Bend Schools and Penn High School to encourage institutional accountability.
In a statement the NAACP responded to the incident, asking South Bend Schools to require the student who used the racially insensitive language to “write a paper examining the harmful impact of racist language on individuals and communities and present those findings to the SBCSC School Board during a public meeting.”
The NAACP also asked that South Bend Schools conduct an implicit bias investigation within the district and that the superintendent “provide a written statement outlining how this incident will be addressed and what specific steps will be taken to prevent similar occurrences in the future.”
In response, school officials said, “We share the community’s deep concern over the use of a racial slur during the broadcast. Language like this is hurtful and offensive, not only to the person it was directed toward, but the entire community. It is unacceptable and does not reflect the values of Penn-Harris-Madison School corporation.”
School officials could not comment on what specific disciplinary action the student will be facing due to federal privacy laws.
According to the South Bend Tribune, school board member Marcus Ellison spoke on the issue at Monday’s SBCSC board meeting. He does not support a suspension of athletics at Penn High School, but did confirm there was a “private apology” between the student broadcaster and the student-athlete.
"I think the way that Penn's school board and superintendent have handled this, they've done a lot of things that I think were the right thing to do in response to the incident," Ellison said. “I think, you know, boycotting our athletics teams, not competing anymore, I think that's bad for us, I think it's bad for their students, and I think it's bad for the community, and that's not the proper response, in my opinion, to resolve the situation."
