Wellesley Public Schools is investigating following a high school basketball game Friday night where students in the crowd yelled racial slurs against players on the opposing team.
The incident reportedly started during warm-ups when students used slurs against players on Weymouth High School players. Those players reported the comments to their coach who alerted the Wellesley team.
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Members of the high school's athletic department had to intervene on several occasions to prevent what the principal described as a potentially dangerous situation. At one point, the referee asked Wellesley's athletic director to move the student crowd further up the stands after there was physical contact between the students and the Weymouth players.
Once the game ended, a number of fans rushed to the court to celebrate the home team's win, and continued to taunt the Weymouth players.
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Wellesley High School Principal Jamie Chisum says more measures will be taken in future games.
"We are all upset and disappointed that anyone from our school could have engaged in the behavior of abusing others with racist language," Chisum said in a statement to parents. "We hope that you will take the opportunity to talk to your children about how harmful the use of racist language is and that hate has no place in the Wellesley community."
The Wellesley Schools superintendent issued a statement saying, in part: "It's critical that we speak with a clear voice and name this behavior as both unacceptable and contrary to our core values as a district. No one deserves to be treated this way, particularly student athletes who travel to our district to compete."
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Students attending the last home game of the season on Tuesday night must be accompanied by an adult.
