BYU bans fan, relocates volleyball match after racist slurs,
threats
By Glynn A. Hill and Cindy Boren
Updated August 28, 2022 at 2:29 p.m.
EDT | Published August 27, 2022 at 9:51 p.m. EDT
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/08/27/byu-duke-volleyball-racist-incident/
The Washington Post (WaPo) ran this
fairytale in August 2022 without any independent investigation and just taking
the word of one Black Duke player. The
entire story just assumed it was true and the incident really happened but when
it began to unravel the WaPo did no follow up article until three weeks
later. It would seem that after Duke’s
racially charged Soccer Team fiasco that turned out to be a total lie, Duke would
be more careful accusing another school with racism but it appears Duke learned
nothing from their false experience.
What Duke did to BYU is identical to what happened to them years
earlier.
In a 16 September 2022 WaPo article
highly critical of BYU’s diversity history, they did include this sentence
buried in a 29 paragraph article: “After
the episode became public, BYU launched an investigation, which it claimed
found no ‘evidence to corroborate the allegation that fans engaged in racial
heckling or uttered racial slurs’.”
Actually, BYU released a statement that included the
following:
“As
part of our commitment to take any claims of racism seriously, BYU has
completed its investigation into the allegation that racial heckling and slurs
took place at the Duke vs. BYU women’s volleyball match on August 26. We
reviewed all available video and audio recordings, including security footage
and raw footage from all camera angles taken by BYUtv of the match, with
broadcasting audio removed (to ensure that the noise from the stands could be
heard more clearly). We also reached out to more than 50 individuals who
attended the event: Duke athletic department personnel and student-athletes,
BYU athletic department personnel and student-athletes, event security and
management and fans who were in the arena that evening, including many of the
fans in the on-court student section.
From our extensive review, we have not found any evidence to
corroborate the allegation that fans engaged in racial heckling or uttered
racial slurs at the event. As we stated earlier, we would not tolerate any
conduct that would make a student-athlete feel unsafe. That is the reason for
our immediate response and our thorough investigation.”
https://byucougars.com/story/athletics/1300724/statement-byu-athletics-regarding-investigation-aug-26-volleyball-match
The fact that the WaPo ran with this
fairytale is consistent with their past practices where they assume the worst
and attribute racism to everything. Remember the Sandmann fiasco where the WaPo
accused a 16 year old Cincinnati high school student of disrespecting a Native
American in DC on the word of the Native American. Turns out video confirmed it never happened
and the Native American was a “stolen valor” non-Vietnam Vet who had been
cashiered out of the Marine Corps Reserve with “bad paper” for misconduct. Because
of the video and the accurate journalism of honest news outlets, the WaPo was
forced to retract their previous stories and acknowledge they had been
publishing what amounted to “Fake News.”
The WaPo settled out of Court paying Sandmann an undisclosed hefty sum
to avoid the embarrassment of what would be revealed during discovery about
their shoddy journalism.
THE WaPo’s MOST EGREGIOUS EXAMPLE OF WRONGLY ACCUSING HIGH
SCHOOL STUDENTS OF RACIAL WRONGDOING WAS LAST MARCH 2021 WHEN THEY PUBLISHED
A “FAKE NEWS” STORY INVOLVING THE WAKEFIELD – MARSHALL FOOTBALL GAME.
This BYU-Duke article is reminiscent
of the way the WaPo reported that incident in March 2021 when the Northern Virginia schools postponed
their football season to the Spring because of COVID. A few days after a game
between Wakefield and Marshall High Schools, the Wakefield football team and
school administrators accused the Marshall team of taunting them with racial
epithets. The WaPo only interviewed the Wakefield people for
the story and declared the Marshall “guilty” as charged. Missing from the WaPo reporting was the fact
the Marshall Team, parents, coaches, school administrators and even the Virginia High School League (VHSL) umpires
officiating the game said there were no racial comments made but those facts never made it into the WaPo
article. Fortunately, other sources did publish more balanced reports
that included both sides of the story but NOT the WaPo.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/a-high-school-football-team-told-adults-they-were-spit-on-and-called-the-n-word-nothing-changed-until-a-player-posted-enough-is-enough/2021/03/20/fa0c7e78-8918-11eb-bfdf-4d36dab83a6d_story.html
The true story obviously didn’t fit the WaPo’s desired
narrative so they opted to just “lie by omission.” Also, the initial WaPo article indicating there would be a
VHSL investigation but the WaPo never reported the results because they did not support the WaPo/Wakefield version.
The Marshall
parents issued a statement that “although
the VHSL officials refuted the allegation, the Fairfax
County Public School (FCPS) failure to issue
a public statement refuting the allegations has compounded the harm to the
Marshall players' health, psychological wellbeing, and reputations. None of us
denies that racism exists in our society -- and none of us condones bigoted or
hateful words or actions. But what we can say for sure is that there is no
culture of racism in our football program. There is no evidence of
racial slurs and spitting by the Marshall players or harassment by our coaches,
volunteers and spectators on March 5. The irresponsible perpetuation of these
false allegations is causing real damage," said the parents statement.
ABC7 spoke
to several of the Marshall parents by phone and one parent said that Marshall
players were required to wear masks the entire game due to COVID-19 protocols.
"If they were going to spit, they would have to remove their masks,"
she said. "I was there, and it
didn't happen." Parents also
said Marshall's interim principal spoke to parents with kids on the Marshall
football team via phone and the principal told them
that Marshall "conducted a full
review and we could not corroborate or substantiate the allegations that racial
slurs or spitting happened on the field." Also, even the
Virginia High School League officials refuted the WaPo/Wakefield story but
the WaPo failed to follow up their unfounded allegations with a truthful
balanced article.
https://wjla.com/news/local/football-fallout-parents-at-wakefield-hs-marshall-hs-respond-after-racial-allegations
Another WaPo fiery tale that
confirms: Democracy Dies in Darkness and the WaPo is Turning Out the Lights.
—————————
VHSL responds to calls for change after football team
is accused of using racial slurs
https://wjla.com/news/local/vhsl-responds-to-calls-for-change-after-football-team-is-accused-of-using-racial-slurs
by Heather Graf
Friday, March 19th 2021
ARLINGTON, Va. (ABC7) — By Friday
afternoon, more than 5,000 people had signed onto an online petition that
demands "accountability and change" after serious allegations
stemming from a high school football game in Northern Virginia.
Members of the Wakefield High School football
team in Arlington say they were spit on and called racial slurs during a March
5 football game against the team at Marshall High School in Fairfax County.
The online
petition, started by Wakefield parents, asks for
apologies from both the Marshall football team and the Virginia High School
League. It also asked for a reversal of any suspensions of Wakefield players,
along with "mandatory diversity and inclusion training for local athletes,
coaches, and officials".
On Friday evening, the two school districts
with players involved in the incident issued a rare joint statement. You can
read the statement in its entirety, posted on the Arlington Public Schools
website and on the Fairfax County Public Schools website.
The statement says both FCPS and APS embrace
diversity and strongly condemn hate speech and racial intolerance of any kind.
"This situation has deeply affected both
school divisions, our families, students, and our respective communities. In
recent days, it has provoked strong emotions in both communities, and has
become divisive by pitting schools against one another. This is not about one
team versus another; it is about our students and how we can come together to
support them and take necessary actions to ensure this situation does not
repeat itself. Our students deserve better," the joint statement says.
The two school districts say they will
"be working together to repair the harm done" and to support their
students. They also called on the Virginia
High School League to enact change.
"Together, we ask the VHSL to join us in
urging change to include mandatory diversity and inclusion training for high
school athletes, coaches and officials. We also commit to provide training and
education for our athletes, coaches and staff so that, together, we are all
working to support students," the statement said.
Earlier in the day, ABC7 spoke to the
Executive Director of the Virginia High School league, the organization that
oversees high school sports in the Commonwealth.
"It makes me sad to hear this takes place
anywhere, whether it's in a school building or on a football field, or any kind
of thing," said Dr. Bill Haun, VHSL's Executive Director. "I mean, there's no place for this type
of behavior and these types of comments and these things that have been
alleged. There's no place for that in our society."
He said VHSL was made aware of the allegations
shortly after the March 5 game between Wakefield and Marshall.
"We reviewed the video,
we looked at the video, and we spoke with folks from both schools and followed
the procedures we normally follow," said Haun. "We spoke with the officials
and got all the information we could and then worked with the schools to talk
about this, and then for the schools to do their investigations."
Haun also cited a VHSL policy that was put
into place during the 2018-2019 school year that says any racial slur used in
any athletic competition would result in an automatic ejection.
"Prior to that it was just a penalty, but
we wanted to go a step further because we felt there's no place for anything
like that in sports," he said.
The year that policy took effect, he says VHSL
had 23 athletes ejected from games for the use of racial slurs. He said 19 of
the 23 ejections came from the Northern Virginia Football Officials Association
(NVFOA).
That's the association that was responsible
for officiating the March 5 game between Wakefield and Marshall. ABC7 asked
Haun whether the referees in that game properly followed VHSL policy.
"I would have to think they did," he
said. "The officials said they were made aware by the Wakefield players that this was happening
and said they were attune to that along with the rest of their officiating
duties,and did not hear anything that warranted an
ejection. They did not hear any racial slurs."
ABC7 has learned players from both teams were
initially suspended for three games. The suspension was later reduced from
three games to one.
Many members of the Wakefield community feel
that their players should not have been disciplined in that way.
Prior to Friday's joint statement with FCPS,
the Superintendent of Arlington Public Schools issued a strongly worded
statement "calling on VHSL and all parties involved in extracurricular
activities to reform and change their practices to ensure our schools and
athletic events are free of racism, bigotry, hate speech and unsportsmanlike conduct".
Haun said he supports that call for reform.
"When we talk about reform and change, I
agree that we do need to do something. Because when you do a penalty, that's
reactive response to eliminating a problem. The proactive response is through
education and educating people," he said.
But he also says VHSL staff can't make those
changes on their own.
"I think this is an important point that
people need to understand when they say VHSL needs to make changes. Nobody in
our office makes the polices, all policies are made by our membership," he
said. "We are a membership organization. We have 318 membership schools
that encompass 133 school divisions."
VHSL also has an executive committee made up
of 37 representatives from different schools and different regions throughout
Virginia.
ABC7 asked what VHSL can do in the short term
to address the concerns being voiced by school district leaders and community
members.
"I think we continue to talk with our
people, we continue to enforce the rules. But again, that's a reactive piece
rather than a proactive piece," he said. "I'm talking with some folks
at the Department of Education about possibly, they're doing some webinar type
training right now, and I'm talking with them about partnering to sponsor some
of those trainings on culturally sensitive stuff and seeing how we can move
forward from there."
Wakefield's principal said it's important that
these conversations happen sooner than later.
"If VHSL doesn't have the authority to
mandate every school, they can at least set the example and at least put out an
expectation that this is what we would like to see in every school and every
conference," said Dr. Chris Willmore, the principal at Wakefield High
School. "And what I would hope to see come from this, as the Arlington
community and the Fairfax County community, is that we be willing to engage in
those conversations. Because if we don't do it, the kids deserve better. And
this country's not going to move forward."
