A principal in Wisconsin is apologizing after dozens of high school students taunted a standout opposing basketball player with signs that made it appear as if he was wearing blackface, saying school officials would “make this right.”
Port Washington High School Principal Eric Burke apologized Thursday after the incident Wednesday involving Nicolet High School star Jalen Johnson, a top college prospect in the 2020 class whose own photo from his Instagram account showing him wearing a charcoal facial mask was photocopied in an apparent attempt to mock or distract him, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.
“It’s disappointing,” Burke told the newspaper. “We’re going to make this right. Apologies have to be made. As a principal, I apologize for our students’ actions, but our students are going to be involved in a sincere apology for what happened and the people who made this happen, there are going to be consequences.”
One Port Washington student has been suspended for his role in the incident and one parent took part in printing the signs, Burke said. Students at the game – in which Johnson notched a triple double in a 75-40 victory – displayed the poster when the junior standout went to the free throw line, he said.
“Even if nothing bad was intended, the conduct sends a bad message, intended or not,” Burke later said in a statement. “We at the Port Washington-Saukville School District teach acceptance and respect, and this goes against the mission of our district to educate all students on the importance and value of respecting others … This conduct can be viewed as harmful and hateful.”
The photocopied posters were displayed for just a “minute or two” before they were taken from the students, Burke said.
Johnson and his father declined to be interviewed, the Journal Sentinel reports, but he addressed the matter on his Twitter account on Thursday, retweeting an image of the photocopied poster and dozens of students holding it at the game.
But at least one parent of a Port Washington student who asked not to be identified insisted the poster did not have racial overtones.
“It’s strictly, 100 percent to get a dominant athlete, get in his head a little bit and try to give us a little bit of an advantage,” the parent told WTMJ.
Administrators for the Nicolet Unified School District said Johnson is “much more” than an outstanding athlete.
“I cannot speak to the motivation or intent the Port Washington students had in displaying this photo, whether a harmless skin-care prank or a more deeply troubling, racially motivated scenario,” Nicolet Superintendent Robert Kobylski said in a statement. “I can attest, however, to the fact that Jalen is more than a tremendous athlete: he is a fine, upstanding young man and deserves to be treated with respect and courtesy by all students and people, no matter what bench they are rooting for.”
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