Two Kansas Schools Investigate After Students Shout Racist Slurs, Bring Black Doll To Basketball Game

On Saturday, both Topeka High School and Valley Center High School basketball teams went toe to toe on the court. The visiting team was unfortunately met with unruly fans screaming “racial slurs, threats and disgusting taunts.”

Topeka High School’s team, coach Geo Lyons, created a Change.org petition asking for the matter to be rectified and for suspected students held accountable to be removed from sporting events. He also explained that students weren’t only taunted, but  Valley Center students also used a Black baby doll to agitate his team during the game, KSN News reports.

Valley Center released an apology statement to Topeka High School on Monday for “inappropriate language and behavior.” It explained the district devoted its weekend to investigating the allegations through interviews and game-day footage.

According to NBC, In another statement on Tuesday, the Valley Center school district said they believe fans from both schools were aggressive and very loud during an intense game.

“Valley Center High School principals, Mrs. Melissa Seacat and Mr. Chris Asmussen did their best to handle reported situations, particularly those involving some students in the Valley Center student section,” the statement read.

The district, while a Topeka player was fouled, students from the Valley Center crowd yelled out, “He’s a p—y.”

“Administration immediately began removing students involved and shifted to a proactive mode to prevent any further negative interactions as the game ended; an off-duty police officer also assisted in getting everyone to leave the game immediately after it was over,” the statement said.

As of Tuesday, school officials had not found evidence of racist allegations, but Valley Center acknowledged that its student’s ignorant ways were inappropriate.

A game attendee posted videos of a couple of intense incidents during the game on Facebook. Jo’Mhara Benning, a Topeka High School sophomore, posted two videos of what took place from her point of view.

“Our parents were saying, Where is your administrator? Why is nobody doing anything about this?” Benning said. “They were chanting names at our players from the student section, and we also heard … we were also called the N-word.”

Additional support will be added at future games to help with supervision.