Portola High Basketball Player Makai Brown Left 'STUNNED' After Racist Taunts Fly at Laguna Hills Game
Category: News & Politics
Via: john-russell • 3 years ago • 35 commentsBy: Zoe Richards (The Daily Beast)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The Friday night game at California's Laguna Hills High School descended into racist abuse and alleged threats from an assistant coach.
A high school basketballer's mom has demanded action after a student in the stands was recorded hurling racist comments at her son during a recent game.
Sabrina Little-Brown shared the video on Instagram on Tuesday, describing how her son, Makai, was taken aback after he heard the comments while rewatching footage from a Friday night game "as he always does," on Saturday morning before practice.
In the video, a person can be heard saying, "Where is his slave owner?," "Who let him out of his chains?," "Chain him up," and "He's a monkey" as her son shoots free-throws.
"He came into my room STUNNED," Little-Brown wrote of her son who plays for Portola High School. "What he heard directed 100% to him is contained in this video, but these disgusting, racist insults continued throughout the entire game footage. Needless to say, our family is up in arms."
When reached by The Daily Beast on Wednesday, Laguna Hills High School athletic director Scott Wilford said administrators "have been investigating it all weekend and are still working on it."
Saddleback Valley Unified School District Superintendent Dr. Crystal Turner confirmed in a statement to parents, obtained by The Daily Beast, that the incident occurred at Laguna Hills High School during the Friday night game against Portola High, which is part of another local school district.
According to Turner, school officials determined that the "inappropriate and inflammatory racist comments" came from a Laguna Hills student after reviewing game footage and interviewing spectators.
"The language and connotations expressed by the words used do not represent the culture, attitudes, or feelings of the students and staff of LHHS, nor those of Saddleback Valley Unified School District," she wrote, adding that the school is "taking action."
"The student has been counseled, and immediate, appropriate consequences and discipline have taken place," she wrote. "Although apologies are necessary, they do not suffice. The words used by this student will never be acceptable."
Turner said that administrators also attended practice to talk about the seriousness of what happened with players and coaches. "Appropriate personnel actions, while required to remain confidential, have taken place," she added.
Little-Brown didn't immediately respond to The Daily Beast's request for comment on Wednesday but in her post she alluded to broader challenges, saying she believed Laguna Hills Boys Basketball "fosters a culture of aggression, unsportsmanlike conduct and RACISM!"
She also claimed Laguna Hills head coach David Yates had subjected her son to "verbal abuse" and "aggressive behavior," and that her husband confronted him about it.
"As a result of this verbal abuse my normally calm and level headed husband yelled at the coach to tell him not to address our son," she wrote.
According to Little-Brown, an assistant coach responded, telling her husband to "meet him outside in the parking lot after the game."
Her husband was escorted out of the game after responding to the assistant coach's comments, she said.
Yates joined Laguna Hills High School as head boys varsity coach after the 2017 season, according to a biography for coaching staff posted on the Laguna Hills website. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Daily Beast but he told the Orange County Register that Little-Brown's retelling of the encounter was inaccurate.
"There is much more regarding the entire incident that I am not permitted to share," he said.
Wilford declined to comment on details from the incident that involved Yates, noting that he wasn't at the game.
Meanwhile, Makai's dad Terrell Brown told KABC that what happened to his son seemed to reflect more broadly on Laguna Hills High School.
"It's deeper than just what that child was saying," he told the outlet. "Their culture just seems to be broken to where it's just not an environment that feels safe, at least safe for us."
His wifeand other Portola High School parents addressed their concerns to city leaders during an Irvine City Council meeting on Tuesday night, KABC reported.
"This isn't the end. This is just the beginning of the work that's ahead of us and for Laguna Hills High School, of the city of Laguna Hills, Saddleback Unified, fix yourself," Irvine Mayor Farrah N. Kahn reportedly said at the meeting.
Addressing the racist comments directed at Little-Brown's son, Yates told the Register : "Of course they're disgusting. They don't represent the school, the district or our basketball program."
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Young Trump supporters in the making. Ask mom and dad.
Comments removed from this thread for no value. Stop with the meta and tit of tat fighting. Only warning.
In California? Get real.
Expel the student and fire the coach.
It was a student. If you listen to the video, it is easy to tell that it is a young voice.
Laguna Hills High Student Yells Racial Slurs At Black Player During Basketball Game (yahoo.com)
The student should be banned from attending anymore games.
Granted this is all coming from Ms. Little-Brown, mother of the player who suffered the verbal abuse. What reasons would she have to lie about it?
People lie for different reasons. Jussie Smollett comes to mind.
Maybe the Coach did say something she felt was abusive. What did he say? Did someone else hear it? It is easy to make accusations, isn't it?
I would reserve judgement until the entire story is revealed.
My comment was addressing the seeded video.
So I added a bit that was in addition to the video. Pardon the fuck out of me
No problem...you can always start your own comments.
"She also claimed Laguna Hills head coach David Yates had subjected her son to "verbal abuse" and "aggressive behavior," and that her husband confronted him about it."
Coaches yell at players....it comes with the territory.
I remember the days of Bobby Knight at Indiana University..................these guys today could NEVER play for him today for sure.............
Coaches never yell at players on the other team. Especially not when they are high school kids.
Does telling the parent to ''"meet him outside in the parking lot after the game." come with the territory as well?
Never been to a high school game?
Parents and coaches have a love/hate relationship. Everything from the kid not getting enough playing time; to the way they are used gets thrown at the coach. Hell, the way parents yell at their kids during the game would make any coach blush.
Yes, I have been to a lot of high schools games and to be exact in Laguna Hills since I lived down the road from there.
To respond to Greg and his BS comment that has since been deleted, Laguna Hills is 73% white and they vote traditionally Republican in presidential elections. So as usual he was no idea of what he is talking about.
See link for the demographics of Laguna Hills. 58% white and another 14% white Hispanics...72% white.
I stated that traditionally Laguna Hills votes republican, in 2020 they did not and neither did the Republican stronghold of Orange County which Laguna Hills is part of. OC and Laguna Hills has been traditionally been a Republican stronghold but that has switched in 2020.
by party in presidential elections
In the California State Legislature , Laguna Hills is in the 36th Senate District , represented by Republican Patricia Bates , and in the 73rd Assembly District , represented by Republican Laurie Davies . [21]
In the United States House of Representatives , Laguna Hills is in California's 45th congressional district , represented by Democrat Katie Porter . [22]
Laguna Hills is historically a Republican stronghold in presidential elections. In 2020 , however, Joe Biden became the first Democratic presidential nominee to win the city since its incorporation.
According to the California Secretary of State , as of February 10, 2019, Laguna Hills has 18,217 registered voters. Of those, 7,002 (38.44%) are registered Republicans, 5,261 (28.88%) are registered Democrats, and 5,143 (28.23%) have no political party preference/are independents. [23]