‘Absolutely Disgusted’: Virginia High School Cancels Boys’ Baseball Team’s Season After Mom Says Her Son’s Teammates Called Him the N-word
Administrators at one high school in Virginia canceled the remainder of their varsity baseball team’s season after finding evidence supporting allegations of racist behavior on the team.
According to WTKR, the probe started last month shortly after the mother of a student at Kempsville High School in Virginia Beach posted videos on social media stating that members of the team repeatedly called her son the N-word and other racial slurs.
“I am absolutely disgusted,” the mother said in one of the videos, according to the local outlet.
Kempsville Principal Melissa George released a statement this week to the school community and local media outlets that said the school “found racism, hate speech, and harassment have been an ongoing issue for multiple years” on the team.
George said that because of those findings, the school “can not in good faith play baseball knowing the number of players involved” in the harassment, so the team must forfeit the rest of the season. She added that the conduct is “much broader than the initial allegations brought forth and stems across multiple years.”
It’s unclear right now what school administrators specifically discovered from the investigation or how many students faced disciplinary action.
One player’s parent who spoke to WTKR said his son ended up being suspended from school for six days but disputes the claim that he was involved in the racist harassment.
Kempsville’s baseball coach, John Penn, told WAVY News he was still employed at the school. However, he declined to answer whether he was still serving as the team’s coach. George’s statement said the decision to cancel the rest of the season was made alongside Penn.
“We should be so far from this, but we’re not,” Green Run High School baseball coach Myron Campbell said.
Green Run was scheduled to play Kempsville this week before Kempsville forfeited the rest of the season. Campbell, who is Black and has two sons who play on his team, told the Virginian-Pilot that discrimination is a longstanding issue in the city’s baseball community, so he isn’t shocked by the allegations.
“We’re still how it was before Jackie (Robinson), man. It’s 2024, and it still feels like it’s 1944. But I’ve been in baseball in this area for 13 years, and it has not changed,” Campbell said. “And I’m not really surprised of what has come out of the Kempsville area because it happened to my oldest son when he was like 12 or 13. He was ready to walk away from the game. (Racism is) out there and it’s bad.”
Virginia Beach Public City Schools officials confirmed their investigation with Kempsville administrators had yielded proof of harassment and that “appropriate action” was taken. They didn’t go into detail on what that action was.
“Know that this type of behavior will not be tolerated in our school division,” the statement reads. “VBCPS values inclusive communities and works to ensure that our staff, students and community embrace our core values.”
The president of the city’s NAACP branch stated he was “extremely concerned about how this situation has existed for quite some time.”
“We applaud the brave young men who spoke up in an effort to advocate for equality within this system,” Virginia Beach NAACP President Eric Majette said. “It is unfortunate that racism still exist and that our youth have had to endure its ugly head. It must be stamped out everywhere. It is our goal to ensure that the residents do not live in fear or with undue anxiety, just because they are African American.”