I am writing to you after witnessing a racial injustice at Battle Ground High School that I wouldn’t imagine happen at a basketball game. Today’s world is extremely stressful. There are so many things that our young adults face each and every day. Racism should never be one of them. This is a taught behavior and it seems that it is a tolerated behavior at Battle Ground High School.
During the game, when a foul was called against Battle Ground, the student fan base would chant “Black Lives Matter” as soon as the foul was called. How inappropriate is that? Yes, Black lives do matter, but to taunt Mountain View and the officials in such a way with that chant was disgusting. What concerns me even more is that not one person from the school stopped the student body that was there from doing this. It was one of the referees that stopped the game and spoke to the head coaches about the situation before this stopped. No one from the school felt that this was inappropriate behavior. Really? The icing on the cake was when the song “Cotton Eyed Joe” was played. No one approached the head coach of Mountain View to apologize or acknowledge that any of this could be upsetting to his team or their families. I have heard racism is alive in the Battle Ground area but refused to believe it. Unfortunately, I was wrong. The behavior of the student fans and the lack of action from the staff demonstrated the tolerance of social injustice.
Pat Hodney-Gould,
Vancouver
