Response to Athletics Incident
Racial and Homophobic Violence
Last week, at a Winooski High School (WHS) girls soccer game at BFA-Fairfax a student-athlete on the BFA-Fairfax team, as well as spectators, used repulsive, violent, racist, and homophobic language against our student-athletes. One of our WHS student-athletes was called “monkey” and another was targeted with unsolicited comments about their sexuality. While these comments are always upsetting to hear after the fact, they have real and devastating impacts on our student-athletes who were only trying to represent their school and play the sport they love.
In 2021 racially violent comments were made towards our WHS Boys Soccer team by student-athletes and spectators from Enosburg Falls High School. On behalf of the Winooski School District (WSD), I made it a point to call on the Vermont Principals Association (VPA), the governing body of Vermont school district athletics, to “implement robust antiracism training for all middle and high school sports officials and coaches, develop mandatory procedures to report racial abuse and violence, and partner with school districts to ensure thorough and fair investigations of any reports of racial abuse.”
Since then, the VPA has implemented new policy and procedures which have increased reporting of racist and homophobic issues and resulted in twelve Vermont high school games either being disbanded or paused, discussed, and continued. Additionally, VPA has put procedures into place to collect and analyze data specifically related to racism and homophobia.
These new procedures were followed by the officials and coaches at the girls soccer game between WHS and BFA-Fairfax. The game was paused to evaluate the situation, and a conversation was had between the BFA-Fairfax Athletic Director, officials, and coaches. Directly after, the BFA-Fairfax Athletic Director and Coach spoke with their student-athletes. However, this did little to diminish the harm felt by our student-athletes and it does not make the words said any less violent.
Once again, we find ourselves in a situation where we must react. It saddens me to my core to see our bright, and resilient WHS student-athletes, being the target of racial and homophobic violence. To see these young adults with so much heart being pained by the hateful nature of others is truly infuriating. For some of our BIPOC student-athletes, this event resulted in them ending their season early. In their minds, this was the only sure way that they could protect themselves. It is no secret this form of violence towards Winooski student-athletes is an ongoing issue. We know that the issues of racial and homophobic violence are not unique to us here in Winooski. These issues plague Vermont and American society where people of color and LGBTQ individuals continue to be the victims of hate.
Furthermore, these issues are not up to Winooski to solve. I implore everyone in Vermont to report racism and homophobia to address the immediate violence and to hold open and honest lines of communication at our schools, in our homes, and in our communities to build safer and more inclusive environments for our youth.
WSD will continue to plead for a state-wide, policy and procedural-level commitment with resources to condemn and address all racial and homophobic abuse and violence. We acknowledge that prevention begins with difficult, uncomfortable, and courageous conversations about racial and homophobic violence. Please join us in continuing to fight racism and homophobia!
Sincerely,
Sean McMannon, WSD Superintendent