Enosburg Falls High School boys soccer players and fans hurled racist language at Winooski High School players when the two teams played each other earlier this month, according to the Winooski School District superintendent.
Superintendent Sean McMannon said in a statement that Winooski High players of color “were called the N-word, monkey, and terrorist” during the Sept. 18 game in Winooski. He said this is not the first time Enosburg Falls High soccer players and fans have racially abused his district’s team. The statement was posted Friday by the school district on Twitter.
“This continued racial violence against Winooski student-athletes makes me sick to my stomach, boils my blood, and needs to stop,” McMannon said.
The Vermont Principals’ Association, the governing body for school sports in Vermont, is aware of the incident, according to Executive Director Jay Nichols.
The game was first brought to association leaders’ attention the day after it was played, when the head referee notified them that a Winooski player was removed from the game after he was given a red card for “violent conduct” and that the team’s players were fouling excessively, Nichols said.
Nichols said the association gets notified every time a player is ejected, regardless of the severity of the incident.
Enosburg officials then sent the association video of a Winooski player headbutting an Enosburg player, Nichols said. The referee had not witnessed the headbutt, Nichols said, which gave the Enosburg player a concussion.
The association told Winooski officials the player who headbutted the Enosburg player would have to go before a committee to determine if he should be suspended, and for how long.
That hearing is set for Tuesday.
But in reviewing the situation with Winooski officials, the association learned that Winooski’s players said they were racially abused during the game, Nichols said.
“That’s just as bad as the headbutt situation,” he said. “That’s violence in its own right.”
The Franklin Northeast Supervisory Union, which includes Enosburg Falls High, is now investigating two allegations, Superintendent Lynn Cota wrote in an email.
One is that Enosburg students “used racial slurs directed toward Winooski students of color,” she said. The other is that Winooski students “were violent toward” Enosburg students during the game.
“If either is found to be true, we will take whatever disciplinary action we can to hold the parties responsible,” Cota said. “Racial comments and physical violence have no place in the sports arena, or anywhere else in our schools.”
In his statement, McMannon said Winooski’s players also described being kicked and elbowed off the ball during the game out of the referees’ view.
He said the racist abuse by Enosburg players and spectators, and the physical conduct by both teams, was reported to the referee but ignored, which “resulted in further aggressive and unsportsmanlike play by both teams.”
The Winooski superintendent called on the principals’ association to develop mandatory procedures for reporting racial abuse and violence, and to work with school districts “to ensure thorough and fair investigations of any reports of racial abuse.”
In a statement on Monday, Winooski Mayor Kristine Lott also said the city would “continue to call for accountability and change, as well as fight for equality and racial justice” in response to the incident, which she called “disheartening.”
Nichols said the association was already planning to require implicit bias training for high school coaches starting in the upcoming winter season, and for high school officials starting with next fall’s season.
“We’re definitely trying to do what we can to help,” he said.
Last summer, then-Winooski High student Hussein Amuri told the district’s school board he had been called racist slurs during soccer games throughout high school. The district needed to do more to address the abuse, he said at the time.
Winooski has the state’s only BIPOC-majority school district, VTDigger has reported.
Local community members organized a “fill the stands” event for the high school boy’s soccer team’s home game on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m.
“Come stand with them,” the group Winooski Mutual Aid wrote in an Instagram post, “and show that Winooski does not tolerate racism.”
Clarification: This story was updated to more precisely describe the organizers of a “fill the stands” event at Tuesday’s Winooski soccer game.
