So, there’s a boys’ lacrosse team at Haddonfield Memorial High School in New Jersey. Haddonfield, a small town of fewer than 12k people, is 92% white. About a week and a half ago, one of the lacrosse players allegedly told a black athlete from a neighboring school (Sterling High School) to get off the Haddonfield track, and then called her the n-word.
If true, it’s unacceptable and disgusting, and that lacrosse player is a punk.
What should have happened, after the the incident was reported and investigated, is that punk kid should have been cut from the team and disciplined in accordance with whatever school policy exists relative to inappropriate behavior like this.
What DID happen, is that the rest of the entire lacrosse season at Haddonfield Memorial High School has been canceled altogether.
In a statement to NJ Advance Media, Haddonfield School District interim Superintendent Dr. David T. Lindenmuth said that their internal investigation discovered issues that are “completely unacceptable for this community.”
“There is no room for hate of any kind at Haddonfield Schools and it will not be tolerated. It is not who we are and it does not represent our student body,” Lindenmuth said in a statement.
As a result of the investigation, the remainder of the boys’ lacrosse season has been cancelled.
There will be diversity, sensitivity, and empathy training for students, staff, and coaches, along with additional procedures and requirements for all sports teams.
This is totally batsh*t. Unless the entire team of lacrosse players banded together and collectively shouted the n-word at the Sterling High School player, I fail to see why they should all be punished. You wanna expose them to some sort of useless diversity and empathy training nonsense? By all means. Train them. But canceling the entire rest of the season because you have one sh*tty jerk on the team? I’m sorry, but that’s batsh*t. I don’t care that it’s almost summer and the season probably wasn’t going to last much longer. That’s irrelevant.
According to the sourcelink, the school district REALLY wants to make sure they appear to be taking this super seriously, so they’ve reached out to the NAACP and Anti-defamation League for “resources, curricula support, and training.” And the whole incident has been reported to the New Jersey Atty General’s office.
Remember back in the days of normal, when kids would insult each other and then they’d get disciplined (usually by their parents), and then everyone would go about their business and people wouldn’t report a schoolyard insult to the freaking Atty General of the state and cancel entire sports seasons over it?
Yeah. Good times.