Students at Beachwood (Ohio) High School have alleged that they were taunted with racial slurs and Confederate flags at a recent high school football game, and that a majority of the slurs came from adults present at the game rather than students.
Two members of the cheer squad at Beachwood told Fox 8 in Cleveland about what they saw while at a road game at Grand Valley High School. Cimone Jackson told the TV station that she saw “two to three Confederate flags” and that the people waving them were doing so near the cheer squad and band on purpose.
“There was a group of people saying, ‘white power on three, 1-2-3 white power,’ ” Beachwood cheer team member Natalia Dammiani told Fox 8. “I was kind of scared to go to the bathroom alone.”
News 5 Cleveland reports that Grand Valley superintendent William Nye Jr. sent an apology letter to the Beachwood School District, and said that one adult fan in particular was responsible for the slurs, and that he was removed from the game and banned from school property.
“As soon as this action was brought to our attention on Friday night, we addressed this with the Beachwood SRO and our police officers, we had this person escorted and he’s been banned from our campus indefinitely,” Nye wrote in his letter. “We have set-up a meeting with Beachwood administrators and their administration, and some of our board members are going to come and develop a plan to ensure that there are safe conditions everywhere and no one is threatened.”
Nye said that Grand Valley students and staff were not involved.
“We apologize and are embarrassed and appalled that this kind of behavior happened from one of our community members,” Nye wrote. “This is not a representation of our community.”
