Windsor Files Complaint Alleging Racist Behavior

WINDSOR, CT — Windsor school officials have filed a complaint with the executive director of the Connecticut Association of Schools - Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference, the governing body of state high school athletics, concerning alleged acts of racism on the part of St. Joseph High School students during a girls soccer state tournament game there on Nov. 7.

Dr. Craig Cooke, superintendent of Windsor Public Schools, addressed a formal letter of complaint Thursday to Dr. Karissa Niehoff, CAS-CIAC executive director, outlining several complaints about the first-round Class L tournament game. Among the allegations are a group of male students from St. Joseph had a boom box which played the song "Africa," adding a racist chant he feels was directed at the Windsor players, many of whom are African-American.

Cooke said upon hearing an initial complaint about the behavior from a parent, he, along with athletic director Steven Risser and principal Uyi Osunde, began an investigation, interviewing Windsor coaches and players and requesting game video from Dr. William Fitzgerald, St. Joseph's Head of School.

In the letter to Niehoff, which was provided to Patch by Cooke, the superintendent wrote," A group of male students sang the song "Africa," which by itself does not have a racist message, however, students added the chant, "Where are you from...Africa."

He added the same group of boys were banging baking sheets or pans together as noisemakers, in violation of a CIAC rule against such distracting behavior.

Another aspect to Cooke's complaint was the alleged behavior of a St. Joseph coach, unnamed in the complaint, who is accused of "taunting us throughout the game" and saying "it is a long hour and a half bus ride home." He is also alleged to have shouted, "nice kick, blondie" to a Windsor player, and to have loudly referred to others as "losers."

Osunde's report to Cooke said the students' singing and chanting "is demeaning, demoralizing and blatantly racist. They should be held accountable. The girls should have made an issue during the game - the ref should have ended the game or ejected the fans...I am saddened that this is the closing experience that will be etched in the memories of our senior student athletes on what should be celebrated as a milestone accomplishment."

In a reply to Cooke and Osunde's concerns dated Nov. 9, Fitzgerald said the students accused of racist chanting, known as the spirit squad, "told him none of them made any comments about the girls on the Windsor team. It is their practice to confine their (self-assumed) wittiness to our team, and never to the opposing team or referees."

Fitzgerald said he spoke to four teachers who were in the stands and one who was next to the spirit squad. "No one I spoke to recalls any racially motivated comment," he stated.

He said he interviewed his coach, who said, "The only comments that I made were directed at the [Windsor] coach, and his repeated slander of my team and him speaking out loud negatives of our team. Nothing and I repeat nothing that came out of my mouth was directed at any of his players."

Fitzgerald wrote, "I assure you the boys have been admonished to guard against any behavior that could be misconstrued and how accountable they are for such failings. I am also deeply sorry for the parents who found offense during their visit to our campus. Interscholastic athletics are a healthy and wholesome opportunity for community building, not division. We would have wished for them a better experience."

In a second message to Cooke, dated Nov. 17, Fitzgerald responded to the request for game video by stating a sideline video camera was set on the goal, and "I don't know how purposeful it will be for you. Whether it has audio I don't know."

Fitzgerald concluded his Nov. 17 message by indicating the video "may include coverage of your coach on the sidelines as he spent most of his time on the ten yard line, as he had five players on the ten yard line, and five on the fifteen, and there they remained. All defense, and no offense. The strangest strategy."

Cooke wrote to Niehoff, "I am disappointed as it appears evident that neither the students' behavior not the coaches' behavior at St. Joseph High School will be addressed. The practice of allowing students to play their own music on the sidelines of the field should be reviewed as my understanding is that it is against CIAC rules. Additionally, I am concerned that we have been told by the Head of School that their students' comments were only directed at their players when that was not the case. Hopefully, after receiving this report, action will be taken on the part of the St. Joseph administration."

Cooke added, "Our girls soccer team entered into this contest certainly overmatched according to record and recent history, but proud of their accomplishments having made the state tournament for the first time in 22 years. What they didn't expect to encounter was an environment charged with racial statements made to them or by an opposing coach who belittled them. Our students also observed that the supervising adults at this facility and the referees would not take action on their behalf."

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