Natick High School sports team suspended after discovery of offensive messages
NATICK — An unnamed Natick High School winter sports team has been suspended from play after a series of racist and offensive messages and video were discovered in a group chat featuring student-athletes.
The incident was addressed in an letter sent to Natick High School parents on Dec. 23 by Superintendent of Schools Anna Nolin and interim High School Principal Jason Hoye, who announced the team would be suspended from playing while an investigation into the group chat is undertaken.
"The team who originated the hateful chat group has been shut down from season play and investigations occurred all day today to determine the scope of the hateful behavior," the letter stated. "This team and others may be involved in this type of discriminatory and racist behavior. Any and all students involved in such behavior, even as bystanders, will be subject to possible investigation, discipline and solutions to address this behavior."
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The school has not confirmed what sports team is affected, whether it's a boys or girls team, or whether it's a varsity, junior varsity or freshman team. The school did state that it was a winter sports team.
The letter states that the Hoye and his staff were alerted to a video that showed a racist act toward a Black student at Natick High School. Following an investigation by Hoye, a group chat associated with at least one team was discovered that contained content that the school considered anti-Semitic and ableist.
"Principal Jason Hoye and his team discovered a racist act (a published video) against our Black students," the letter continued. "Through that investigation, an anti-Semitic, anti-Ableism group sports team chat associated with one or more of our winter teams was also discovered."
The letter stated that the sports team would have all of its games and practices suspended. Instead, team members would undergo training conducted by Northeastern University Center for Sport and Society, with a focus on toxic speech prevention and bystander training and additional hours in the Anti-Defamation League’s Removing Bias and Hate in Sport groups.
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The letter stated that school officials were working with the Natick Police Department, and requested that the department investigate the issue as a potential hate crime.
When reached this week, both Nolin and Natick Deputy Police Chief Brian Lauzon declined to comment further.
"I don't have the capacity to give any updates because it is still an active investigation; as soon as I have something more to report to the community, I will certainly get it out there," Nolin said in a voicemail response to a Daily News inquiry.
This article originally appeared on MetroWest Daily News: Natick High team suspended from play due to possible hate crime
