Racism present at high school basketball games

Lady Raiders Assistant Coach Matthew Pleasants came across something shocking while reviewing video from their Feb. 18 game against the Okanogan Lady Bulldogs. 

While a Lady Raider, who is of African-American descent as well as a tribal member, was shooting free throws, Okanogan fans jeered at her by making monkey noises. 

Pleasants and his father, Head Coach Wallace “Peewee” Pleasants, are also African-American, and Matthew Pleasants, said that he found the jeering “disheartening” but added that he wasn’t “one bit surprised.”

That type of behavior is a “recurring issue,” he said. 

Grand Coulee Dam School District Superintendent Paul Turner the two districts have been in contact are investigating the report.

"I don't think for either us or Okanogan's community as a whole that it would be fair to blanket them as a problem," Turner said, but the districts are looking into the incident "and will deal with it."

Matthew Pleasants noted an incident from three years ago that involved Waterville fans calling Peewee the “n-word” to his face.

He also noted incidents at games that didn’t involve LR. Two years ago a student section was making monkey noises to a student shooting free throws in Zillah, and earlier this year, at Olympia High School, their student section chanted “monkey” towards a visiting team’s player, he recalled.

LR fan Shelly Davis caught the recent incident in Okanogan on video and shared a clip of it on her Snapchat page. 

“I am hoping they were just trying to discourage our girls,” she told The Star, “but the past few years I’ve noticed the ugliness come out of some people; not only players being called names but also a coach.”

She said the incidents seem to be happening everywhere lately.

The incident was reported to the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association.

“We did get a report for that incident between LR and Okanogan, submitted to the bias reporting form,” WIAA Director of Information Casey Johnson told The Star yesterday. “Both schools are doing an investigation into the situation to see what they can find through reviewing video and talking to people.”

The “Discriminatory Harassment Report Form” is new, launched earlier this year, and will give the WIAA more data on the frequency of such incidents.

The form “allows people to have a voice,” Johnson said, noting fans, parents, players and others can use it.

Once someone reports “discriminatory harassment” using the form, the WIAA will get in touch with the schools involved and encourage them to do an investigation if they haven’t already, Johnson explained. He said WIAA is “trying to be helpful in any way that we can.”

The form can be found on the WIAA website under the “resources” tab at https://www.wiaa.com/subcontent.aspx?SecID=1337 .