RICHMOND -- It's about time. Earlier this month, Berkshire County's public high schools warned misbehaving fans that getting ejected from a game would mean being suspended from games for a minimum of two weeks.
Fans that have to be removed from Berkshire high school sporting events will now face a minimum two-week suspension
Berkshire County high schools are implementing a new policy for fans: Any spectator that has to be removed from a game will face a suspension of at least two weeks.
The action comes nine months after Pittsfield High School's high-achieving basketball team was verbally and viciously abused by students and adults at a Final Four game in Worcester.
For Pittsfield star Malachi Perry, it was bigger than the hostile feel in the air. After Perry sank a layup in the semifinal game at Worcester State University, the opposing defender spit in Perry's face. Perry, who is Black, immediately shoved the spitter, who is white, and the referees gave Perry a technical foul. The spitter stayed in the game, his offense uncalled by an official, although the ubiquitous cellphones verified the whole scene later.
While the spitting was disgusting, alarming and possibly racist, the new action by the county high schools addresses the other major problem at the game between PHS and Old Rochester Regional High School, a game PHS may well have won in a different atmosphere. The other problem was the fans.
For Pittsfield High coach Jerome Edgerton Jr., the familiar tension brought on by racism came back at state semifinal
Weeks later, as Pittsfield civic and school leaders and elected officials continue to call on the MIAA for change, PHS coach Jerome Edgerton Jr. is still processing what happened, and advocating for justice for his team.
Their jeering and racial epithets were, at the least, unsettling. And as the game went on and ended with PHS going down in defeat, the Pittsfield contingent felt not just insult but fear. Coach Jerome Edgerton kept his team in the gym out of worry about its welfare in the locker room. Official help was not forthcoming, and the fear proved justified when a spectator in the parking lot attacked someone on the team.
The suspension proposal came from the Berkshire Roundtable of the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents, partly inspired by the spitting occurrence and partly because, as Hoosac Valley Regional Superintendent Aaron Dean put it, "We've seen an uptick in the past year of things that shouldn't happen at school sporting events." In fact, news reports indicate that, for at least a decade, people attending games have been shocked or uneasy with the actions or speech of their fellow fans.
Getting ejected has long been on the rule books. The athletic director or designated site director has the authority to eject. According to Brandon Brousseau, athletic director for PHS and Taconic, "spectators are given a warning regarding their behavior before they would be asked to leave or removed from the game." He said officials may also ask the AD to have someone removed.
Under the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association's rule book, people can be ejected for "taunting," which includes comments that "bait, anger, embarrass, ridicule, or demean others, whether or not the deeds or words are vulgar or racist." And people can be suspended for "fighting, punching, kicking or spitting." After the Final Four game, the MIAA's short response was hardly reassuring, including: "The MIAA continues to serve as a resource to its member schools as they navigate the facts of the matter at the local level" -- bureaucratic boilerplate.
In a message to families, the superintendents, principals and athletic directors made clear that "all student-athletes, coaches and officials should be able to carry out their duties on the field ... without fear of verbal or physical attacks." They pledged to provide staff and monitor behavior at games and said, "Let the players play, let the coaches coach, and let the officials officiate."
Their words go out in a country that has decidedly become more coarse in its behavior in the past decade. In Congress, the people's representatives often present a poor picture of how one person should treat another. President-elect Donald J. Trump has given his OK to verbal abuse with his cruel comments about the handicapped, veterans, opponents and others. It all crumbles the dignity that used to be a hallmark -- at least publicly -- in high places.
Columnists America confronts its deepening cruelty problem By Jeff Robbins
Columnist Jeff Robbins, commenting in The Eagle last week on Americans who applauded the recent assassination of a health insurance executive, questioned whether the "national descent into the acceptance of brutishness" can reverse itself. At the very least, Berkshire County can take a stab at turning around the growing behavior problem at kids' games and making it a joy to be there, on field, floor or ice.