Report says racism incident unfounded

A report from the Okanogan School District determined that noises made during a basketball game were not racially motivated, but others, including Colville Business Council members, disagree.

Reviewing game footage, Lady Raiders Assistant Coach Matthew Pleasants, himself an African American and Native American, took note of racist monkey noises being made while a Lady Raider, also an African American and Native American, shot free throws during a Feb. 18 basketball game in Okanogan. 

Pleasants reported the incident to the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association, which led to the Okanogan School District conducting an investigation. 

A report of the investigation notes that Okanogan Superintendent Ashley Goetz, Athletic Director Kevin Daling, and Principal Zach Spaet, who themselves appear to be white in photos on the internet, reviewed video footage of the noises being made and determined that “the noise being made by the Okanogan High School student section was not racially insensitive in nature, but simply general noise in an effort to distract [the Lady Raider]. General noise is consistent throughout the game as well as during additional free throws by [other LR players].”

The video “does not reveal any racially insensitive behavior or gestures by the student section at any point in the game. The alleged monkey noise being used as a racial slur by the [Okanogan] student section cannot be substantiated.”

Pleasants said recently that, while noise is common during a game, those specific noises are never made when players of other races are shooting free throws.

Spaet interviewed three Okanogan High School students who attended the game, none of whom reported any “racially motivated” comments, behavior, or noises, the report says.

Kara Finley, the mother of a Lady Raider who says her daughter has had racist noises directed at her on multiple occasions, wasn’t happy with the report.

“This is a prime example of an investigation being only as good as the investigator and is limited to the investigator’s biases,” she wrote to The Star in an email. “There are four things that I have an issue with regarding this report - only three people were interviewed when there were at least 40 kids in the student section, the noise was not made the entire game, and the fact they’re speaking to someone’s motivation, but they didn’t identify who made the noises so how can they speak to what their intent is. The people who they interviewed cannot speak to anyone’s intent either.”

“My final point is that they cannot truly say it ‘was not racially insensitive in nature’ because it was,” she continued. “The fact that they didn’t take this seriously, which is evident in the way they investigated, is really frustrating, insensitive, and leaves me feeling hopeless for the people of color who attend their school or who may come into contact with them through extracurricular activities. They aren’t even admitting the noises could be a misunderstanding. They’re flat out saying the noises were not even close to being racial, when they used the words ‘in nature’ in their report. I know the noises rocked the core of our coaches and my daughter. OKHS is wrong for taking that stance because our coaches and my daughter have a right to feel how they feel. OKHS is unwilling to see the shortcomings of their own ways.”

When similar monkey noises were made towards her daughter during a March 4 game with La Conner High School during the state tournament in Spokane, the reaction was different: the student was removed from the game, and the other school apologized, both at the time of the game, and afterwards.

“I am terribly sorry that one of our students was making loud, monkey-like sounds during a tribal student’s free throws in the first quarter of the game,” La Conner Superintendent Will Nelson, a tribal member himself, wrote in a letter to Colville Confederated Tribes Chairman Andrew Joseph Jr, adding that he is “committed to a district without racism and a district with equitable outcomes and inclusive thinking. …

“Race and racism in society are rightfully at a heightened intensity, bringing scrutiny on racist incidents that occur and on incidents that are perceived as racist, even if the intention was not harmful or hurtful in nature,” Nelson wrote. “We are deeply sorry for the harm and hurt that this tribal student experienced.”

The Grand Coulee Dam School District board of directors met with Joseph and other members of the Colville Business Council, the governing body of the Colville Tribes, as well as Finley, Pleasants, and his father, Lady Raiders Head Coach Peewee Pleasants, at their March 14 board meeting.

Regarding Okanogan’s investigative report, Joseph said that he likes “the idea of having someone who isn’t affiliated with the schools doing the investigation,” and that Okanogan’s own staff doing the investigation is “kind of like investigating yourselves.” 

He said that this type of suffering at school can lead to violence, even as far as school shootings.

Tribal Council Members Jarred Erickson, Alison Ball, and Karen Condon all voiced their disapproval with the way the situation was handled.

Erickson said that racist behavior seemed to become more prevalent during the previous presidential administration. 

“We don’t have any authority over anybody else,” School Board Director Butch Stanger said, “but we can make sure if there is an interaction that doens’t meet the cultural diversity of the [GCDSD] that we don’t have to participate with those people or even be around them.”

He suggested having the school district work with the CBC on a joint document that would express this stance, and for the document to have “some teeth in it.” 

Stanger said some positive changes could be made by putting some “heat” on the state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction as well as the WIAA, to come up with stricter policies.

Local school districts could team up and come up with their own policies on matters such as discrimination, he reasoned, and an offending school could be barred from playing games with them.

Peewee Pleasants spoke to his experiences with racism in his more than 30 years in the area.

“These racist comments didn’t just start,” he said. “It's been going on quite a while. … I do everything in my power to protect the girls from all this stuff going on. … When we go to areas, I make sure the girls aren’t by themselves; they’re always in a group, just because of this. … This happening now is so pervasive, it’s frustrating. I have to try to coach, be a counselor, be a protector, and it’s always like, I never get to let my guard down. The few times I have let my guard down, things have popped off. I don’t want to walk around with my guard up all the time, preparing for something someone might say to the girls or about the girls.”

“The frustration level is high,” he continued, “and it’s going to be that way until there’s something in place to protect these kids as they move through our school system. There’s a very high mixed-race population going through this school at this time. We have to start looking at how we’re going to protect them. … You’re never going to get rid of it, but how you deal with that situation when it arises makes a big difference and says a lot about who we are as a people and where we want to go.”

Matthew Pleasants spoke on the issue as well. 

“Being a graduate of LR, I know the community and challenges around it,” he said. “Being a teenager is tough enough, the current climate as it is, our students are going through a lot. I hear about the mental challenges and seeing it, the last hurdle we need is racial tensions coming up and making it more challenging than it needs to be.”

“The [Okanogan] situation, sad to say, doesn’t surprise me, but the way it has been handled has been discouraging, being Native, being Black, I have a dual identity and see it from both sides. The challenges, racial issues, we have to face it. The easiest thing is to not face it. … When it’s people you love, it’s discouraging, it's heartbreaking. People are coming out and speaking up, and a lot that are speaking up are the voice for the voiceless. As this incident was reported, I started hearing from people about more incidents not just at our school but other schools, inside of school. The ones that haven’t spoke up don’t feel empowered to speak to the situations, because it falls on deaf ears. Hopefully, what I’d like to see is some kind of policy. Other schools have implemented policy changes. We can’t control what other schools do, but we can control what our school districts do. That’s something I’d like to see start being worked on as a real resolution for change. At the end of the day, we need real action and to form it in a way where they feel that they have support and feel it is there.”

FInley detailed many of her frustrations throughout the situation, and other racially charged occurrences her children have faced as students at Lake Roosevelt. 

“I told my daughter ‘we can’t fix what happened to you, but we can try to prevent it happening to other people,’” she said. “I think sensitivity training is a simple request.”

Tribal council members were in general agreement with Finley, with Condon addressing the need to increase sensitivity and cultural awareness.

“I hope the school board is receptive to what we are saying and addresses some of these issues. We can’t go on like this,” she said.

“I don’t believe there’s one strategy to fix this,” Ball said. “There has to be a lot of thought put into a lot of strategies towards discrimination that hurts us.”

School Board Director Alex Tufts said that ultimately everyone cares about the well being of the kids.

 “Whether it’s through enacting different policies and giving speeches on equity or helping with racial issues,” he said, “us as board members, we want to hear how we can improve and what we can do better from our entire community. … It all comes down to our kids. What can we do for them, how can we mitigate the issues for them? … We’re not mind readers; we don’t know what needs to happen without input from other people, without being asked, or ideas presented to us.”

Later in the meeting, while talking about the need for increased cultural sensitivity in the district, Turner detailed how staff undertook weekly training last year on Fridays for six weeks in collaboration with Braided Consultants from the Spokane Tribe.

“It’s recognized that sensitivity training is needed,” he said, adding that he wants to continue that type of training.