Ben Lindsey, the head basketball coach at Conway (Ark.) High School, had been on paid administrative leave since Oct. 7 before being fired last week for using a racial slur while lecturing students not to use it.
As reported by the Arkansas Times, the incident occurred during an Oct. 3 practice. “I did not mean to offend anyone” but wanted to stop the students’ repeated profanities, Lindsey said while addressing a five-hour school board hearing Thursday. Lindsey, who is white, had already apologized, but not until Oct. 21, according to testimony during the dismissal hearing.
The board voted 5-2 to dismiss, with Dr. David Naylor Jr. and Linda Hargis voting against dismissal as recommended by the interim superintendent, Jason Black. Naylor and Hargis are white. The board’s other white member, Trip Leach, voted for dismissal, as did all four Black members, Debra Hale-Shelton of the Arkansas Times reported.
School district attorney Shastady Wagner said she asked Lindsey if he would handle the situation the same again. Lindsey replied that he would use an “abbreviation” instead of saying the word next time.
Lindsey claims he was just trying to get the kids to do “right.” But, according to athletic director Greg Hughes, to say this particular word is “just not acceptable.” Some people were afraid that if Lindsey said the word once, he’d say it again, Hughes said.
“We as coaches sometimes get away with more than we should,” Hughes said, but this mistake went too far. He noted that 16 of the team’s 17 players are Black and that one parent later said, “These words should not be said to our kids.” Some of the kids were “distraught” at a subsequent meeting.
Hughes said he does not believe Lindsey was using the word as a racial slur, but said he also believes Lindsey could have made his point without using the word.
“He never called a kid that. … Believe me, he never did that,” Hughes said. But people were “upset that it was being used at all.”
Hughes said it was also unacceptable for Lindsey to wait for weeks after the incident to apologize.
