Posted on October 6, 2022

California School Forfeits Football Season Following ‘Slave Auction’ Prank

Scott Gleeson, USA Today, October 3, 2022

A northern California high school canceled the rest of its football season after the team enacted a racist and offensive prank.

The football team at River Valley High School in Yuba City, Calif., shared a video where team members appeared to act out a “slave auction” with Black teammates.

Yuba City Unified School District Superintendent Doreen Osumni provided a statement to CNN and CBS News calling the prank “deeply offensive.” {snip}

“Re-enacting a slave sale as a prank tells us that we have a great deal of work to do with our students so they can distinguish between intent and impact,” Osumni wrote. “They may have thought this skit was funny but it is not; it is unacceptable and requires us to look honestly and deeply at issues of systemic racism.”

The team members involved in the video were kicked off the team for the remainder of the season for violating the school’s student-athlete code of conduct, and that left the football team without enough players to compete for the rest of the 2022 campaign. River Valley forfeited the rest of the games on its schedule.

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Additional punishment could come for the students involved in the video.

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Original Article