SIUSLAW NEWS | SATURDAY, AUGUST 24, 2019 | 3B
OSAA
from 1B
That’s not to say that
spectators are being forced
to sit silently in the stands.
“You can scream and
yell all you want,” Johnson
said. “Just scream and yell
in support of our team. You
can do a lot of things to
support your team without
getting negative. Clapping
together, cheering together
— If we had 2,000 people
in our gym and everybody
is screaming “defense, de-
fense” from the bleachers,
that’s pretty intimidating.
That’s totally great, totally
legal. But if I’m yelling ‘You
Suck” every time number
12 gets the ball, that’s not
right.
“You’re not going to have
less fun at a game because
you can’t scream and yell at
somebody.”
OSAA does not officiate
every league game played
at schools, spending most
of its time at state champi-
onships. There will not be
extra officers or adminis-
trators to patrol the games.
“They’re trying to put
together something that
holds schools, fans and
coaches accountable to de-
corum,” Johnson said.
If an incident does occur,
it’s incumbent on individu-
als during the game to re-
port the incident to OSAA,
who will then sanction the
district.
“That’s puts a lot of pres-
sure on our school,” John-
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son said. “Sometimes you
can’t hear everything. For
the most part, the incidents
are isolated. For the most
part, for the past couple of
years, if I walk by and sit
by somebody and say ‘Hey,
you’ve got to cool it,’ they’re
great. They say, ‘You’re
right, I’m sorry.’ We’ve had
a pretty strict sportsman-
ship message that said,
‘We can’t get after officials.’
That’s where it stopped for
us.
However, the specif-
ic incidences that could
get a school sanctioned is
still being defined by the
OSAA, which leaves indi-
vidual schools to determine
what is acceptable and what
isn’t.
“Obviously, that creates
some gray area,” Johnson
said. “Coming up with
concrete examples is real-
ly difficult. There’s a lot of
people who feel like yell-
ing “airball” isn’t the end of
the world. But I think it’s a
piece of a larger puzzle. ...
Ultimately, we don’t want
to kick people out. We just
want fans to understand
that there’s a problem, it’s
real and people are being
affected. This didn’t start in
Florence but once the rule
is in place, it’s my job to en-
force it.
“We are an institution of
learning. This is a teachable
moment, not just for our
students but also for our
spectators. I think this will
make it a better situation
for everybody.”
The regulations are a
reaction to multiple in-
cidences throughout the
state in 2019, beginning in
January at St. Helen’s High
School. In that incident,
Parkrose High School,
which is Oregon’s most ra-
cially diverse high school,
traveled to St. Helen’s High
School for a girls’ basket-
ball game. During the JV
game, a group of St. Helens
students began hurling ra-
Curious?
cial insults at the Parkrose
players.
“It started with five or six
people [in the crowd] at the
JV game,” Parkrose High
School’s basketball coach
Krystal Forthan told Fox
News 12 in January. “A few
parents heard it and then it
trickled over to the varsity
game, with me being called
a gay ‘N-word.’”
“Everyone in the gym
could hear it,” a player told
Willamette Week, though
officials did nothing any-
thing to stop the harass-
ment. It continued out into
the parking lot as the team
went to its bus for the ride
home. St. Helens students
made monkey noises and
one St. Helens student told
a white Parkrose player,
“You should be their mas-
ter, not their teammate.”
“It’s hard to focus when
people are calling you the
‘N-word,’ making monkey
noises, telling you to cross
the border,” Parkrose play-
er Teniya Green told Fox
News.
Descriptions of the inci-
dent made their way to the
state capital, where Port-
land Senator Lew Freder-
ick labeled the incident as
a “bias crime.” Soon after,
legislation was introduced
on House Bill 340, which
made it illegal for school
districts to be a member
of — or paying fees to — an
interscholastic organiza-
tion, such as the OSAA, un-
less the organization imple-
ments policies that address
the use of derogatory or
inappropriate behavior that
occurs at sporting events.
The bill passed both hous-
es with full bipartisan sup-
port; zero “no” votes were
cast.
The OSAA, which over-
sees Siuslaw and Maple-
ton School districts’ sports
activities among other
districts in Oregon, took
action with an overhaul of
Sportsmanship Responsi-
bility guidelines for players
and officials — with par-
ticular guidance aimed at
spectators.
In a letter addressed to
superintendents, principals
and athletic directors, the
OSAA explained its deci-
sion, pointing out that the
incident at St. Helens was
not a one-off. During the
past year, Oregon schools
have experienced the fol-
lowing:
• Youth marched on to
a high school soccer pitch
carrying a white nationalist
flag and called visiting Lati-
na players “beaners” and
“bitches.”
• Players on a football
team called opposing play-
ers the “N-word” and no
coach, official or school
staff took any action.
• Fans threw beans on the
floor of a visiting team side
of a volleyball court; the
visitors were mostly Latina.
• Fans at a basketball
game yelled “scalp them”
when playing against a
team from a tribal commu-
nity.
“These incidents are ris-
ing,” Johnson said. “They’re
not isolated. They may be
rare, but they’re not isolat-
ed. If I’m in the house or
the senate, I would want
to do anything I could do
to safeguard the students
and to help pass along the
people that are going on to
watch that they just need
to be sensitive to people’s
feelings. It’s just not fun
when you’re in the scope of
anger, and the people who
are targeted by that anger
have no way of defending
themselves. Officials can’t
run into the stands. They’re
taught to run into the lock-
er room and wait for things
to die down, get into the car
and get out of town. Think
about that. You have to
worry about your personal
safety because you made a
call that people disagreed
with.”
For the most part, Siu-
slaw High School has not
had any of the overtly ra-
cial incidents that mir-
rored those cited by OSAA.
Which isn’t to say there ha-
ven’t been issues.
“Sometimes it’s specta-
tors from the community
yelling and getting into the
game, which can not only
bring down the team that
we’re playing, but it brings
down our players too —
even if they’re not yelling at
our players,” Siuslaw Cheer-
leading Coach Teri Straley
said. “Some of the girls have
told me that last year when
they had members of our
community yelling at oth-
er teams, it made them feel
bad for the team opposing
team members. They’re just
trying to play the game the
best they can.”
Straley said that her
squad does not use cheers
designed to bring other
teams down, saying “We
never say ‘B-E-A-T this
team.’ We’re just going to
cheer our team on because
they need that energy. We
can do that without bring-
ing another team down.”
Getting spectators to
change behavior can be dif-
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ficult, as booing opposing
teams has been a part of the
culture since sports began.
“There was a sentiment a
long time ago that coaches
and spectators and maybe
even athletes could voice
their opinion pretty loudly
about problems they have
with coaches, problems
they have with officials,”
Johnson said. “When I grew
up in the 80s, it was com-
mon for us to single out one
player on the other team
and boo when they got the
ball. Or turn our backs on
the team when they were
being introduced. We
would jingle the keys when
the game was over and sign-
ing ‘Nah, Nah, Nah, Good-
bye.’ I think those things
were part of the sport, part
of the fun. But it’s not much
fun to be on the other side
of that when you’re losing
a contest. So, I think we’re
just slowly evolving to a
situation where the things
that come out of spectators
mouths should be support-
ive of their team only.”
Johnson
understands
that it’s an evolution that’s
going to be difficult.
Spectator
sportsman-
ship is an issue that has
been spilling into the pro-
fessional realm as well, as
a recent incident in Utah,
where Oklahoma City
guard Russell Westbrook,
an African-American, was
harassed by a fan while
playing the Utah Jazz. Af-
ter a fan yelled, “Get down
on your knees like you’re
used to,” Westbrook went
off, yelling at the fan and
threatening him.
Westbrook told reporters
that he had received con-
stant abuse when playing
in Salt Lake, including an
incident when a fan called
him a “boy” when he was
warming up.
“There’s got to be some
consequences for those
types of people that come
to the game just to say and
do whatever they want to
say, and I don’t think it’s fair
to the players,” Westbrook
said.
After the altercation, the
fan was banned for life and
Westbrook was fined thou-
sands of dollars. While it
can be argued that the ver-
bal altercations with pro-
fessionals is just part of the
game, Johnson states that
it’s different for students.
“We’re not talking about
professional athletes who
are 30-years-old and mak-
ing millions of dollars,” he
said. “We’re talking about
high school kids and offi-
cials who are making $60
a game to officiate. They
don’t deserve to be treated
like that. … And the peo-
ple on the court at a high
school contest aren’t getting
paid anything. They’re am-
ateurs. They’re high school
students, 14 years old.”
Johnson admits that it
can be difficult for some
fans to agree to the new
regulations,
particularly
with the passion that school
athletics can elic, and that
the new OSAA rules do
represent a paradigm shift
in school sports — but that,
in the end, the rules get
down to what is at the heart
of high school athletics.
“Maybe it seems silly, but
come in with the mindset
that you want to enjoy a
hard-fought contest and
enjoy high school athletics.
Nobody’s out to get you, it’s
not a conspiracy, nobody’s
taking money, coaches ar-
en’t out to get your kids.
They just want to play. If
you want to support your
team, clap when they do
something well. Say ‘good
job,’ ‘come on, you can do it,’
‘great play,’ ‘great shot,’ ‘nice
hit,’ ‘good defense.’ Those
are what they’re looking for.
“Just walk in the door
and be supportive of your
team and don’t treat people
with disrespect.”