Racist pranks at Sacramento-area schools ended football seasons. Coaches see a tie to COVID-19

Northern California high school sports coaches see a connection between the disconnect students felt during the COVID-19 pandemic and the sequence of jarring, racist pranks that disrupted games over the past year.

Coaches, athletics directors and administrators are reviewing their ethics training and disciplinary policies, reminding student athletes that discrimination and pranks are not welcome on or off campus.

But even with those policies in place, schools across the region weathered incident after incident.

First, an El Dorado Hills’ Oak Ridge football player taunting a Black Buchanan High soccer player with ape sounds in March.

Then in September, Amador High School in Sutter Creek canceled its football season after officials discovered varsity players had a Snapchat group named “Kill the blacks.”

Days later, River Valley High School football players in Yuba City went viral after they filmed a mock slave auction in their locker room. The school district ca

Both Amador High and River Valley High had their football seasons entirely canceled.

Then on Oct. 7, someone wrote epithets and racial slurs on the whiteboard in the visiting locker room at Vista del Lago during a football game. School officials don’t believe the incident was connected to the football program.

Alongside investigations into each of these incidents and disciplinary no tolerance policies, school officials are trying to stay ahead in educating students on right from wrong. They’re asking students to sign social media pledges and reminding them that viral moments could cost them opportunities in college and in their careers.

“A situation can happen anywhere, and that’s the scary part,” said John Hefferman, Elk Grove High School athletic director and varsity football coach. “We are not with (the students) 24/7. You try to instill good character, and you try to expect the kids to do the right thing, and teenagers make mistakes. There are consequences for mistakes.”

It’s the kind of work coaches and athletic directors have been doing for years, but with the pandemic isolating students for two years, they said they’re seeing more of a need to address difficult topics.

“The last three years have been so different than the five years before that,” said Rocklin High School Principal Davis Steward. “There is a lot of social regression and social stagnation. Students are constantly online, and they really lost their best selves. What they saw on the screen is what became an influence with no filter or regard for what it does to other people.”

Ethics training for high school athletes

The California Interscholastic Federation, the governing body for high school sports, emphasizes providing resources on gender and race equity. The CIF provides online training to more than 1,600 schools for nearly a dozen issues that can arise on teams: bullying, hazing, teaching sportsmanship and even addressing how parents behave at games.

“The CIF works with the leadership of the schools, and appropriate steps are taken to investigate and address not only the incident at hand but also develop a pathway for our member schools to move forward,” CIF officials said in a statement to The Sacramento Bee.

But ultimately schools are responsible for ensuring that students are informed on policies and sportsmanship.

Several school districts run workshop programs like Breaking Down The Walls, and Point Break, which teach students and staff empathy and strengthen staff culture and engagement.

Breaking Down the Walls’ motto is, “it’s hard to hate someone whose story you know.”

Folsom Cordova Unified hosted a leadership and ethics training by student success coach Dwight Taylor Sr. for Folsom High student-athletes in August. In an effort to address race and equity, the district plans to expand the training to other high schools.

“FCUSD believes confronting racism is a multi-pronged effort that involves everyone in the community,” said Superintendent Sarah Koligian. “We know there is still work to be done. We are committed to continuing our effort to confront and denounce racism and appreciate the partnership with our community in doing so.”

At San Juan Unified, athletic coaches take classes to teach sportsmanship, character and how to be a role model ahead of the season. The district uses the program, “Pursuing Victory With Honor,” which teaches athletes how to build good character.

Roseville Joint Union High School District also uses several programs to address bullying and discrimination.

“We do tons of things to educate our students and make sure they are aware of things that might cause harm to others,” said Roseville Joint Union High School District administrator Rob Hasty.

“Our coaches and teachers discuss appropriate conduct and representing their community as an athlete, band member, choir member, or student in the Roseville community,” he said.

At Whitney High School, athletics director and varsity boys basketball coach Nick French, said that kind of communication starts well before the season. With 130 coaches at the school, meetings are set up for every single student athlete.

“I get to have those candid conversations, and that’s the best part of my job,” French said. “They use certain lingo, because of the music they hear, and the things they see on social media. It’s important that they know it’s not right.”

French said some students push back saying they hear language in their favorite movies and favorite athletes.

“They think there are no repercussions,” he said. “You are held to a pretty high standard especially how you are treating your teachers, classmates, and your teammates.”

Social media challenges

Sacramento-area schools are also trying to keep their athletes from going viral online for the wrong reasons.

Hefferman of Elk Grove High School said platforms such as Tiktok and Snapchat make his job more challenging.

Hefferman has been the football coach since 1999, well before the ride of social media. He called it an additional stress and finds himself educating and warning players often.

“We try to hold ourselves to a higher standard. I ask them all of the time, ‘Do you want your season to end? Are you being recorded?’” he said. “‘You better believe that those colleges are looking at your social media.’”

Rocklin and Whitney High Schools have athletes sign social media contracts, Stewart said. More than 50% of students at each campus are athletes.

“The whole idea is not to use it as a hammer, but as a tool,” he said. “Each individual team would do it and their coach has a talking point every week to refer back to.”

When news broke that racially charged incidents ended the football seasons of two teams in the region, Hefferman took time to talk to his players about what happened.

“We are not going to tolerate this racial stuff,” he said. “There’s no place for that here. And I have no problem removing a young lady or man from a team.”