It's happening in Illinois too:
full-court press of slam-dunk issues came out during Friday night's basketball game between Andrean High School and Bishop Noll Institute.
Free speech. Hate speech. Heated rivalry chants. Intolerance. Catholic school hypocrisy. Clueless parenting. Social media power. And racial-slur ripples from Donald Trump's volatile presidential campaign.
These issues overflowed from the Gary Diocese Catholic Cup championship game in Merrillville, where Bishop Noll won the game 56-52, but Andrean won the headlines. How? By using racially-charged cheering tactics made popular by a GOP presidential frontrunner.
In Andrean's cheering section, a handful of impassioned super-fan students hoisted a large Fathead photo of Trump, along with a sign stating "ESPN DEPORTES."
I can't tell you how glad I am that Donald Trump is a presidential candidate, but not for the reasons you may think.
No, I will not vote for him. No, I rarely agree with him. No, his blowhard politics don't resonate with me. Still, I'm OK with his steamrolling campaign and his high poll numbers....
I can't tell you how glad I am that Donald Trump is a presidential candidate, but not for the reasons you may think.
No, I will not vote for him. No, I rarely agree with him. No, his blowhard politics don't resonate with me. Still, I'm OK with his steamrolling campaign and his high poll numbers....
(Jerry Davich)
"You're a racist!" Bishop Noll students countered.
And on it went, cheer after cheer, jeer after jeer, with students ratcheting up their own rhetoric whether they realized it or not. Was it all in good fun? Probably. But not for everyone in attendance.
"I hated seeing the (Andrean) administration standing there and not doing anything to put an end to this," Ashley Howard of Hammond told me afterward. "They're teaching these kids that it's all right to mock and tease someone based on their racial background. I was offended by the racial motivation behind the whole thing."
Howard was in attendance to watch her cousin play on the Bishop Noll team. Her younger brother previously played on the team. She doesn't recall the cheering and chanting getting so racially charged and politically motivated.
That night, she posted her feelings on Facebook with photos of Andrean's cheering section, writing, "What kind of administration allows its students to support HATE SPEECH and RACISM openly at a school sponsored event… a Catholic school at that."
She tagged numerous media outlets to her lengthy post and it quickly went viral, even prompting a USA Today story and ABC news segment on a Chicago television station.
"The two schools are always extremely competitive against each other," she wrote. "HOWEVER when do we as adults, teachers, parents, and principals teach the youth what is inappropriate. Is the bible really the backbone of your Catholic school when you allow more than unsportsmanlike behavior, you allow your students to taunt with racism."
She raises a valid point, especially considering that Bishop Donald Hying from the Gary Diocese also attended the game and offered a peaceful prayer before tipoff. His prayer asked for respect between the teams and for them to exhibit good sportsmanship.
"If it's true what took place, it was the antithesis of everything we prayed for," said Hying, who was there with his out-of-town family to enjoy the always entertaining event.
Hying said he had no idea that any controversial taunting was taking place. The stadium was jammed, the game was exciting, and the noise level was deafening, he said.
"We were just enjoying the basketball game," Hying told me. "It wasn't immediately apparent that this was going on. But I'm told that it offended more than just this one fan (Ashley Howard)."
Hying said if any Andrean students truly displayed such racially-motivated intolerance through their cheers, chants and actions, school officials will address it Monday when classes resume. An internal investigation would likely take place, with possible disciplinary consequences for those students, Hying noted.
"It won't be tolerated and it's way beyond the bounds of what's acceptable," he said.
Andrean principal Richard Piwowarski could not be reached for comment Saturday or Sunday, but if he responds Monday I will note it in my next column. I also contacted Paul Mullaney, president of Bishop Noll Institute, but he declined to comment.
However, I believe Andrean's marketing promise serves as its best comment: "Christ is our teacher."
Those super-fan 59ers students — and possibly their parents, as well as any school officials at Friday night's game — did not embody any of Christ's teachings during that game.
As Hying told me, private Catholic schools should have higher, and holier, standards than public schools.
"We're aspiring to teach our students to be disciples of Jesus Christ," Hying said.
With all that said, let's put this into more focused context.
First, it was only a small group of teenage students who incited the intolerant chants and unsportsmanlike behavior. I'm told by fans of both schools that such taunting has taken place at previous games between the teams and nothing came of it. They're just young, passionate sports fans being a bit too fanatical.
Second, those impressionable fans were regurgitating the same inflammable rhetoric from a bona fide presidential candidate. Trump is an unsportsmanlike fanatic whose blowhard taunting has endeared him into the hearts and minds of millions of enraged supporters.
Just as his fat-headed antics have gained him helpful newspaper headlines, the high school students' Fathead antics have gained them headlines for all the wrong reasons. Yet they're the ones being scrutinized (and possibly punished) for the same tactics that are attracting high poll numbers for a billionaire bully.
Third, this incident all stemmed from a viral social media post that caught wind from a media frenzy before it caught the attention of school officials. Blame who you will here. The telling incident got sensationalized before it got sanitized.
Still, it could lead to a breakaway layup for officials from both schools.
This incident should be a teachable moment for those Catholic students — and their Christian parents — who blindly and wrongly followed the lead of Donald Trump rather than Jesus Christ.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/subur...oll-trump-tactics-st-0229-20160228-story.html
full-court press of slam-dunk issues came out during Friday night's basketball game between Andrean High School and Bishop Noll Institute.
Free speech. Hate speech. Heated rivalry chants. Intolerance. Catholic school hypocrisy. Clueless parenting. Social media power. And racial-slur ripples from Donald Trump's volatile presidential campaign.
These issues overflowed from the Gary Diocese Catholic Cup championship game in Merrillville, where Bishop Noll won the game 56-52, but Andrean won the headlines. How? By using racially-charged cheering tactics made popular by a GOP presidential frontrunner.
In Andrean's cheering section, a handful of impassioned super-fan students hoisted a large Fathead photo of Trump, along with a sign stating "ESPN DEPORTES."
I can't tell you how glad I am that Donald Trump is a presidential candidate, but not for the reasons you may think.
No, I will not vote for him. No, I rarely agree with him. No, his blowhard politics don't resonate with me. Still, I'm OK with his steamrolling campaign and his high poll numbers....
I can't tell you how glad I am that Donald Trump is a presidential candidate, but not for the reasons you may think.
No, I will not vote for him. No, I rarely agree with him. No, his blowhard politics don't resonate with me. Still, I'm OK with his steamrolling campaign and his high poll numbers....
(Jerry Davich)
"You're a racist!" Bishop Noll students countered.
And on it went, cheer after cheer, jeer after jeer, with students ratcheting up their own rhetoric whether they realized it or not. Was it all in good fun? Probably. But not for everyone in attendance.
"I hated seeing the (Andrean) administration standing there and not doing anything to put an end to this," Ashley Howard of Hammond told me afterward. "They're teaching these kids that it's all right to mock and tease someone based on their racial background. I was offended by the racial motivation behind the whole thing."
Howard was in attendance to watch her cousin play on the Bishop Noll team. Her younger brother previously played on the team. She doesn't recall the cheering and chanting getting so racially charged and politically motivated.
That night, she posted her feelings on Facebook with photos of Andrean's cheering section, writing, "What kind of administration allows its students to support HATE SPEECH and RACISM openly at a school sponsored event… a Catholic school at that."
She tagged numerous media outlets to her lengthy post and it quickly went viral, even prompting a USA Today story and ABC news segment on a Chicago television station.
"The two schools are always extremely competitive against each other," she wrote. "HOWEVER when do we as adults, teachers, parents, and principals teach the youth what is inappropriate. Is the bible really the backbone of your Catholic school when you allow more than unsportsmanlike behavior, you allow your students to taunt with racism."
She raises a valid point, especially considering that Bishop Donald Hying from the Gary Diocese also attended the game and offered a peaceful prayer before tipoff. His prayer asked for respect between the teams and for them to exhibit good sportsmanship.
"If it's true what took place, it was the antithesis of everything we prayed for," said Hying, who was there with his out-of-town family to enjoy the always entertaining event.
Hying said he had no idea that any controversial taunting was taking place. The stadium was jammed, the game was exciting, and the noise level was deafening, he said.
"We were just enjoying the basketball game," Hying told me. "It wasn't immediately apparent that this was going on. But I'm told that it offended more than just this one fan (Ashley Howard)."
Hying said if any Andrean students truly displayed such racially-motivated intolerance through their cheers, chants and actions, school officials will address it Monday when classes resume. An internal investigation would likely take place, with possible disciplinary consequences for those students, Hying noted.
"It won't be tolerated and it's way beyond the bounds of what's acceptable," he said.
Andrean principal Richard Piwowarski could not be reached for comment Saturday or Sunday, but if he responds Monday I will note it in my next column. I also contacted Paul Mullaney, president of Bishop Noll Institute, but he declined to comment.
However, I believe Andrean's marketing promise serves as its best comment: "Christ is our teacher."
Those super-fan 59ers students — and possibly their parents, as well as any school officials at Friday night's game — did not embody any of Christ's teachings during that game.
As Hying told me, private Catholic schools should have higher, and holier, standards than public schools.
"We're aspiring to teach our students to be disciples of Jesus Christ," Hying said.
With all that said, let's put this into more focused context.
First, it was only a small group of teenage students who incited the intolerant chants and unsportsmanlike behavior. I'm told by fans of both schools that such taunting has taken place at previous games between the teams and nothing came of it. They're just young, passionate sports fans being a bit too fanatical.
Second, those impressionable fans were regurgitating the same inflammable rhetoric from a bona fide presidential candidate. Trump is an unsportsmanlike fanatic whose blowhard taunting has endeared him into the hearts and minds of millions of enraged supporters.
Just as his fat-headed antics have gained him helpful newspaper headlines, the high school students' Fathead antics have gained them headlines for all the wrong reasons. Yet they're the ones being scrutinized (and possibly punished) for the same tactics that are attracting high poll numbers for a billionaire bully.
Third, this incident all stemmed from a viral social media post that caught wind from a media frenzy before it caught the attention of school officials. Blame who you will here. The telling incident got sensationalized before it got sanitized.
Still, it could lead to a breakaway layup for officials from both schools.
This incident should be a teachable moment for those Catholic students — and their Christian parents — who blindly and wrongly followed the lead of Donald Trump rather than Jesus Christ.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/subur...oll-trump-tactics-st-0229-20160228-story.html
