A high school football team sparked fury by staging a ‘slave auction’ with their black players.
Footage showed members of the Californian team enacting a sick prank in which they appeared to “auction off” black teammates.
The video was sent to school district officials on Thursday.
Doreen Osumi, the school district superintendent, called the video “unacceptable” and “deeply offensive”.
The River Valley High School students involved in the “unfortunate and extremely distressing incident” were banned from competing in the rest of the football season.
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Google)Because of this, the varsity football team no longer has enough members to play.
The rest of the season had therefore been forfeited, Ms Osumi said.
“Re-enacting a slave sale as a prank tells us that we have a great deal of work to do with our students so they can distinguish between intent and impact,” the superintendent wrote.
“They may have thought this skit was funny, but it is not; it is unacceptable and requires us to look honestly and deeply at issues of systemic racism.”
Some of the students could face disciplinary consequences as a result of the video, Osumi said
The school would also be implementing “education, honest discussions and instruction” around racism.
Ms Osumi said the district and site administration were working “in earnest” to identify lessons and programs to help their student body to learn from the situation.
When students found humour in something that was “so deeply offensive” it told her that there was an opportunity to expand their mindset to be more aware, thoughtful and considerate of others, she said.
