A Minnesota high school basketball player found a racist note in her gym bag, leading to canceled games for the remainder of the season.
Achai Deng, a sophomore at Prior Lake High School, said she found the note saying, “Get off our team, monkey,” with “monkey” underlined twice, KSTP-TV reported.
RACIST INCIDENTS: On Tuesday, a Prior Lake High School girls basketball player said she found this note in her basketball bag.
School officials said they're investigating the incident with police and looking at cameras to find out who wrote the message. (A thread) pic.twitter.com/yrbEHxHBrr
— Brittney Ermon (@Brittney_TV) February 24, 2022
“It’s sad that I should not have to feel pain to the fact that they call me a monkey other than the fact that they disrespect me,” Deng said.
While the racist note is hurtful, the student basketball player said she isn’t surprised by what happened.
“A lot of Black people can say they got used to racism. It just doesn’t phase them. It’s like an everyday thing,” Deng said. “It’s sad. I should not have to feel pain.”
Given the situation, Demondi Johnson, the girl’s basketball coach, has stepped down from his position and took to Twitter to address the incident on Wednesday, February 23.
“I will never sit down to racism and will always stand up for those who look like me,” Johnson said. “I hope that those involved can be educated, be held accountable, heal their hearts of hatred, and learn to love those who look different from them.”
— Demondi Johnson (@DemondiJ) February 24, 2022
The recent Prior Lake incident isn’t the first time a Minnesota high school has been subjected to racist behavior. Last week, the St. Louis Park and Robbinsdale school districts said they would no longer compete against New Prague High School following racial taunts against their students, per KSTP.
On February 15, New Prague students reportedly used racist taunts at a boy’s hockey game with St. Louis Park High School. After Robbinsdale held a girl’s basketball game the same day, New Prague attendees hurled racist remarks and monkey noises toward the Black student-athletes on the opposing team.
While all three schools are part of the Metro West Conference, New Prague was recently inducted as a new participant this year. However, St. Louis Park Athletic Director Andrew Ewald said in a letter that he was hesitant to allow New Prague to join the conference.
“As I said when New Prague High School was applying to the Metro West Conference, ‘I will not stand for your community and students to have teachable moments at the expense of our students,’” Ewald wrote. “Therefore, I will not tolerate or allow our students to further experience any racism while participating in athletics against New Prague High School.”
New Prague Area Schools Superintendent Tim Dittberner has responded to the racial behavior from his school district and vowed to take action to prevent future incidents.
“I think this obviously has caused us to really look at opportunities to how we’re educating our students and changing how we’re working with them with race and culture,” Dittberner said. “I think we also got to really take a look and review and improve what we possibly have with our policy.”
“Racial, religious, or sexual harassment is simply unacceptable in our schools. The goal of safe, supportive school environments is of paramount importance. It is essential that every effort be made, and action is taken to ensure that all students have a safe environment in which to learn and participate in activities,” he explained in the press release.
The Prior Lake High School administrators partnered with the girl’s basketball coaching staff and released a statement, saying the school would investigate the incident.
“We are deeply saddened and distraught over yet another racial incident that occurred within the PLHS community,” they said in a letter to the team’s families. “Our hearts go out to the victim, her family, and all of our BIPOC students and athletes as we continue to work toward an environment of equity and inclusion.”
