School officials in North Tonawanda and Niagara Falls are investigating allegations that racial slurs were directed at Black students on the Niagara Falls High School girls junior varsity soccer team by a group of fans supporting the North Tonawanda team during a matchup Thursday.
Niagara Falls Schools Superintendent Mark Laurrie said he learned of the alleged behavior from parents who attended the game. One of them, Samika Sullivan, posted about it on Facebook. In the post, Sullivan said she witnessed a group of young people who were supporting the North Tonawanda team began to heckle the girls from Niagara Falls.
In a telephone interview with The Buffalo News Friday, Sullivan clarified that she could not hear what the roughly 15 male fans for the North Tonawanda team were saying. She said her daughter and another member of the Niagara Falls team told her after the game that the boys made monkey noises as the Black players from Niagara Falls ran by.
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She was told the fans also called them a racial slur used against Blacks, along with a variety of other derogatory words. They made one of the Niagara Falls players cry, she said.
The North Tonawanda School District posted a message on its website Friday promising an investigation of the incident.
“The entire North Tonawanda School District is saddened and outraged at the alleged behavior of a group of students at the home JV soccer game last evening,” the posted message said. “The Board of Education and the entire staff here in North Tonawanda take this seriously and are investigating it further. Both Niagara Falls and NT administration are working together to get to the bottom of this.”
Sullivan said she was contacted Friday by the athletic director for the Niagara Falls School District, Laurie and a member of the School Board.
“Everybody intends to do something, but I don’t want something drastic to happen. It’s a lesson to be learned. It’s something that, as adults, we know we have to be responsive to those things,” she added.
Sullivan stressed that the members playing on the opposing team had nothing to do with the alleged behavior in the stands at North Tonawanda High School.
“My post wasn’t intended to stir up all of this hoopla,” Sullivan said. “It was just my thoughts this morning about that situation.”
She said she does not want to see the offenders unduly punished by being suspended from school.
“I don’t want to take it to those extremes. I’m an advocate for all youth and I know sometimes kids get together and they do silly stuff, but I think the shock for me now is seeing how frequently this happens. I ‘m not a traditional sports mom so I’m not accustomed to hearing this, but after I posted, there were several other people who posted that their teams had experienced the same thing, whether it be football, basketball or whatever sports,” Sullivan said.
In an interview with The Buffalo News Friday, Laurrie said he was not present at the game, but he did take six statements from Niagara Falls High School girls junior varsity soccer coaches, students and parents who were at the game and forwarded them to North Tonawanda. Schools Superintendent Gregory J. Woytila on Friday.
“I have spoken to the superintendent three times today, and I have sent him all of the written statements, all of the information that the parents, the coaches and the players have shared with me,” Laurrie said.
“I believe that he will handle everything that needs to be handled from his end of the situation,” Laurrie added.
Based on the follow-up questions he was asked by Woytila, Laurrie said it appeared to him that the North Tonawanda School District superintendent was investigating the allegations “pretty thoroughly.”
“I am going to meet with our student athletes on Monday to congratulate them and to thank them for the dignity with which they handled themselves, and to, hopefully, use this as a teachable moment with their coaches, and to assure them that the adults responsible are handling this and that, whatever happened – and I wasn’t there – can never happen again,” Laurrie said.
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