VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — The President of the Virginia Beach NAACP called racism allegations on the Kempsville High School baseball team "outrageous and ridiculous" in an interview Thursday afternoon.
"We will not be silent," said Dr. Eric Majette. "We will be 100% engaged and ensure that our kids can go to school and feel safe without having to deal with racial slurs."
This week school leaders said they investigated the allegations of racism on the team and then confirmed it, leading to the cancellation of the rest of the rest of the team's season.
Virginia Beach
Racism, hate speech, harassment evident on Kempsville baseball team: VBCPS
In another message, the school's principal said it apparently had been going on for years.
As News 3 has reported, the mother of a player on the team has been posting videos on Facebook, saying her son was called racial slurs by his teammates, including the n-word.
The mother said sometimes it was joking. Other times it was not.
Watch previous coverage: Racism, hate speech, harassment evident on Kempsville baseball team, VBCPS says
"I don't think anyone should make any kind of racial jokes against anyone," said Majette.
"At the end of the day, it's bullying," said Rev. Gary McCollum, who is also a member of the NAACP. "That's what it is. It's racial hate."
Going forward, the NAACP says they'll be monitoring the response and pushing for more information at the next school board meeting at the end of the month.
"This was not just one incident," said McCollum. "This was a pattern of things that happened at the school. From what we're hearing now is that there are others in the community who've experienced this same kind of treatment."
Virginia Beach
Kempsville High baseball team forfeits remainder of season
Superintendent Dr. Donald Robertson was unavailable to comment Thursday, but the division did send News 3 their policy on discrimination and harassment, which explains how those kinds of cases are handled.
News 3 also spoke with Mayor Bobby Dyer about the situation.
"It's regrettable that this is the situation that was brought forward, but be assured this does absolutely not define the character of Virginia Beach," he said. "This is something that has to be addressed and corrected, but this is how we define our city: as a city for everyone and we mean that."
