SLO County girls volleyball team faces racist slurs at game. Student fans disciplined
Students from Templeton High School yelled racist slurs and sexually harassing comments at girls on Nipomo High School’s volleyball team during a match between the two San Luis Obispo County schools in late September, according to coaches and school administrators and a tip sent to The Tribune.
The students’ actions prompted the North County school to remove those involved from the game and later take disciplinary action against them, according to school administrators.
Templeton High’s principal, Josh Aston, told The Tribune that he was “very disappointed” about the comments made during the game.
“The offensive and inappropriate comments were made by a few members of the THS (Templeton High School) student body at the volleyball game,” Aston said. “We aggressively and quickly responded to this as soon as we were made aware of it.”
The varsity game took place Sept. 28 at Templeton High’s gym. It was a matchup between two teams currently tied for first place in the Ocean League and competing for the title later in the season.
While administrators have declined to repeat the exact wording of the comments Templeton High fans made, they said the remarks were racially insensitive.
The Nipomo High players also heard “comments about how they looked,” Nipomo High volleyball coach Rocky Logue said.
“I would be fired if I had said those things,” Logue said.
Nipomo volleyball players face racist slurs during game
Logue told The Tribune that he didn’t hear the comments fans made to Nipomo High players because he was focused on coaching a close game.
His diverse Titans team includes Asian-American and Latina players.
“I’m further removed from the players from the stands than the players are,” Logue said. “I could tell by the end of the second set that something was said to one of my servers. ... I couldn’t make out exactly what it was. But I could tell by her reaction.”
After the set, Logue said, a parent informed him of the students’ inappropriate comments.
“I immediately went over and talked to the (Templeton High) athletic director, who did clear out the fans that were doing that and monitored the rest of the fans for the rest of the match from then on,” Logue said.
Logue said Templeton High athletic director Joe Farley was “very responsive” and disbanded the group, creating a virtually empty fan seating space in the gym. The fans were sitting next to parents, which made the situation even more disturbing, Logue said.
Chants and playful taunts to distract opposing teams at high school games are common, Logue said, but not racial abuse and sexual harassment.
“How could this happen?” Logue said. “You know these are kids. This is a school event. ... I can’t imagine that if I was a parent sitting in the stands, and hearing that, how tough that would be on the parents of those kids.”
Logue said he was proud of his girls for persevering and finishing the match with a win against Templeton High. The game ended in a 3-2 five-set win for Nipomo High.
Templeton High School responds with apology, discipline
Templeton High School has issued a formal apology to the team and administration at Nipomo High, Aston told The Tribune.
“We took this as a learning moment, and because they are adolescents we wanted to make sure that they understood what was wrong with what happened, and we took it as an educational moment for them,” Aston said. “We’ve worked with our student leadership to make sure that those things don’t happen again.”
Templeton High officials wrote in an email to The Tribune that the school “immediately and thoroughly investigated the allegations.”
“The THS administration worked closely with the NHS administration in addressing the issue,” the school officials wrote. “These types of actions are unacceptable and not reflective of the values that we work tirelessly as a school and a community to promote/instill in our youth.”
The school also issued “appropriate discipline for the few identified students, pursuant to (Templeton Unified School) District policy,” they noted.
“Because this unfortunate incident involved behavior of minors, we are not legally at liberty to give specifics of the disciplinary action taken,” the school wrote. “Suffice to say that the students involved expressed remorse for their actions.”
‘A teachable moment’
Nipomo High athletic director Russ Edwards said he hopes the students will learn from the incident.
“It sounds like (Templeton High has) done everything they can to educate their student body and to make sure that it doesn’t happen again,” said Edwards, adding that he wasn’t there at the Sept. 28 game, but heard from those who were.
He said teenagers generally can be “out of place with chanting and cheering” insensitively at games because they “say things that come to their minds, oftentimes without thought of future ramifications or bigger global ramifications.”
“The guidance from CIF (the California Interscholastic Federation) is to pursue victory with honor and sportsmanship as a tenant of that,” Edwards said. “I think that it’s all of us — parents, students, administrators, coaches, athletic directors — all of us are a part of that, in trying to make sure that we promote sportsmanship not just with our own teams, but also at our at our home events.”
Due to the Sept. 28 incident, “Templeton had a teachable moment,” Edwards said.
Logue said that he had a positive experience teaching middle school in Templeton for 15 years, and now teaches middle school in Nipomo. He hopes that Templeton High will make sure the behavior doesn’t continue.
“Even though they were horrible acts, they’re still kids and they still need to learn,” Logue said.
Speaking of the students’ comments, he added, “They should never do that.”
Logue said he loves being part of Nipomo’s diverse community and coaching an underdog sports team from a small town.
“I love the fact that we just went to a tournament in Carpinteria and coaches and parents and people come to tell me how much they loved playing our team and how good we were and how impressive we are,” Logue said. “It’s just nice to coach these girls. They are great to coach. They’re so awesome, smart kids.”
This story was originally published October 6, 2021 at 6:33 PM.
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