Pull Center Grove’s Championship following blackface incident
Pull Center Grove’s Championship following blackface incident
The Issue
Following the final football game of the 2021 season in a game where Center Grove and Westfield high schools faced off and Center Grove ended up winning and taking home this year’s state championship, one of the Center Grove players posed for a Snapchat photo while wearing blackface and drawn on tattoos to mock a player on Westfield High School’s football team.
Those of us signing this petition would like to implore that the IHSAA please revoke this year’s championship as a consequence for this incident. We the below signed, feel that Center Grove has developed a long standing reputation of bullying and racism and we also feel that it often seems that the consequences for offenders is often a slap on the wrist and everything gets swept under the rug and the community goes back to pretending nothing happened.
Center Grove has left much to be desired as far as ACTING on situations that involve bullying and discrimination when left to deal with the issues internally, and we the signees are in agreement that until they face a consequence from a higher, external source- change won’t be seen in the Center Grove community and we will continue to see similar abhorrent behavior from their athletics programs in local headlines.
The incident regarding the blackface photo isn’t good sportsmanship at the very minimum- and frankly is a display of ignorance and racism.
There were adults on that bus. It had to have taken some time to smear on that much eye black and paint on fake tattoos. But nobody thought to look in to the surrounding commotion and intervene?
We believe that with the implementation of a more severe external consequence, the coaches, staff and other teammates will be more motivated to hold each other accountable and not allow such behavior amongst their ranks.
Additionally we would like to request that the IHSAA begin to include a course in diversity & inclusion for every single high school athletics team at the beginning of each season, so as to encourage a welcoming and safe playing environment for all players of every district.
We thank all who sign our petition in advance and look forward to hearing IHSAA’s response to our request.
223
The Issue
Following the final football game of the 2021 season in a game where Center Grove and Westfield high schools faced off and Center Grove ended up winning and taking home this year’s state championship, one of the Center Grove players posed for a Snapchat photo while wearing blackface and drawn on tattoos to mock a player on Westfield High School’s football team.
Those of us signing this petition would like to implore that the IHSAA please revoke this year’s championship as a consequence for this incident. We the below signed, feel that Center Grove has developed a long standing reputation of bullying and racism and we also feel that it often seems that the consequences for offenders is often a slap on the wrist and everything gets swept under the rug and the community goes back to pretending nothing happened.
Center Grove has left much to be desired as far as ACTING on situations that involve bullying and discrimination when left to deal with the issues internally, and we the signees are in agreement that until they face a consequence from a higher, external source- change won’t be seen in the Center Grove community and we will continue to see similar abhorrent behavior from their athletics programs in local headlines.
The incident regarding the blackface photo isn’t good sportsmanship at the very minimum- and frankly is a display of ignorance and racism.
There were adults on that bus. It had to have taken some time to smear on that much eye black and paint on fake tattoos. But nobody thought to look in to the surrounding commotion and intervene?
We believe that with the implementation of a more severe external consequence, the coaches, staff and other teammates will be more motivated to hold each other accountable and not allow such behavior amongst their ranks.
Additionally we would like to request that the IHSAA begin to include a course in diversity & inclusion for every single high school athletics team at the beginning of each season, so as to encourage a welcoming and safe playing environment for all players of every district.
We thank all who sign our petition in advance and look forward to hearing IHSAA’s response to our request.
223
The Decision Makers
Petition created on December 14, 2021