With so much going on in 2020, you would think a t-shirt is the least of our problems, but not for two high school female basketball players in Florida. After a racial slur was used during virtual learning at Heritage-Delray high school last week, junior Jordana Codio, and freshman point guard Khadee Hession wore “Black Lives Matter” t-shirts before a home game on Friday, according to Palm Beach Post .
Codio's teammate attended a virtual class where a student’s screen name popped up as “Blacks smell.” While other names showed up as “Trump is great” and “Trump 2020.” Cordio took it upon herself to make her own statement with Black Lives Matter T-shirts during practice on Thursday night.
"After my teammate told me what happened, she was very upset...It got to me also because I could have been in that class, too. Honestly, I think this is beyond extreme [being cancelled] There was no reasoning told to us, and no alternative to what we could have done instead of wearing the shirts. We didn’t even have a chance to ask questions or fix anything," said Jordana Codio.
More players planned to wear the shirts during warm-ups but Heritage-Delray athletic director Laney Stearns and his wife, Karen Stearns, suspended the game before it could happen.
American Heritage Schools President Douglas Laurie claims, "We cancelled the games because of Covid." Stearns further shared that the virtual incident happened when, "a student at Heritage-Delray gave his “friend” the access code to join the class virtually."
“There was very, very conflicting information,” Codio said in a phone interview. “Clearly, there was some kind of collusion (between Laney and Karen Stearns). To me, this was done under cover. It was like, ‘we’re going to use Covid as an excuse.’ ”
Laney told journalist Chris Nelson , "We turned that over to the principal of that child’s school. We did discipline our student for being irresponsible [giving out the passcode], but that student was not guilty of making a racial slur."
He continues to admit that "none of the students will be disciplined for wearing them [Black Lives Matter T -shirts] before the game...punishment could be handed down if players wear them again. We have a uniform policy, and in this case, we let it slip for a couple days...We’re not going to suspend someone or anything like that because it’s a dress-code violation, but at some point, it becomes defiance of authority. If it continues and continues and continues, we’ll have to go from there," said Douglas Laurie.
Many WNBA players responded to the girls on the Heritage-Delray high school basketball team and called the school out for mistreating young Black athletes.
Gayes what are your thoughts?
