BEACHWOOD, Ohio (WJW) — A local high school football game took a serious turn Friday night.
During the game against Beachwood High School, the Brooklyn High School team reportedly used the term “Nazi” during play call, Beachwood Schools Superintendent Robert Hardis said in a statement.
“During halftime, Brooklyn’s coach acknowledged using this word as the play call, apologized, and agreed to change it when the teams returned for the second half,” Hardis explained in a statement sent to the community.
Beachwood reportedly told officials they would leave the game if the behavior continued. While the district said Brooklyn complied, several “players used a racial slur freely throughout the night.”
“We are in contact with the Brooklyn Schools administration and trust they will address this situation in a manner that demonstrates accountability,” Hardis said. “They have been responsive, appropriately concerned and apologetic.”
Brooklyn City Schools offered an official apology following the incident, releasing the below statement to FOX 8:
On behalf of everyone in the Brooklyn City Schools family, we offer our sincerest apologies to the members of the Beachwood football family and school community for the hurtful, insensitive, and entirely inappropriate choice of language used during the first half of this past Friday night’s football game.
Our football coaching staff expressed their regret to the Beachwood football family immediately during the contest, and took corrective measures in the second half, in finishing the contest. While to the knowledge of the Brooklyn City Schools, this language was not directed to any single individual, the choice in using it at all, was utterly and absolutely wrong.
Brooklyn City Schools officials are looking more closely into this matter in order to determine what steps, if any, will be emerge as a result of this incident. The isolated incident does not represent the Brooklyn schools family on the whole, in our efforts to uphold tradition and pride of our diverse school community.
