Yonkers School District Removes A Player And Coach From Girls HS Basketball Team That Directed Anti-Semitic Slurs Toward Opponent

A public high school system in Yonkers, NY, canned a coach and player from it’s women’s high school program after members of the the team shout anti-semitic insults towards an opponent.

OutKick’s Zach Dean reported on Saturday that several players on the Roosevelt High School women’s basketball team got into disgusting verbal altercations with The Leffell School, a private Jewish school in Hartsdale. Members of Roosevelt said “I support Hamas, you f–king Jew,” and "Free Palestine” amongst other despicable things.

Roosevelt’s athletic director Kyle Calabro apologized for the conduct and said “the follow-up would be swift and appropriate.” Today, we got a firm answer on what that looked like.

Roosevelt, in conjunction with Yonkers Public Schools, fired a coach and dismissed one of the players involved. Yonkers Public Schools Interim Superintendent Dr. Luis Rodriquez and city Mayor Mike Spano jointly apologized for this disturbing event.

“The Yonkers Public Schools, along with the City of Yonkers, sincerely apologize to the students and community of The Leffell School for the painful and offensive comments made to their women’s basketball team during a recent game with Roosevelt High School,” the statement said. “The anti-semitic rhetoric reportedly made against the student athletes of The Leffell School are abhorrent, inappropriate and not in line with the values we set forth for our young people.” 

The Yonkers School District Nailed Their Response To This Situation

The district added that the school will mandate nearby schools to undergo training to ensure this doesn’t happen again.

Even after the follow-up, Greenburgh Town Supervisor Paul Feiner wanted the Board of Regents to investigate as well.

“No one should be subject to abuse and hate on the grounds of any school district in New York State because of their religion,” Feiner wrote in a letter. “As history has taught us, silence from good people, particularly silence from leaders, can lead to horrendous consequences.”

Finally, we’ve seen a school district with some backbone standing up to antisemitism (unlike many Ivy League schools). Trash talk between opponents is fine to a certain extent in games. But what Roosevelt did was uncalled for and horrendous. The Yonkers district made all the right calls in the aftermath of the decision.