North Tonawanda students accused of shouting racial slurs at Niagara Falls players during JV soccer game

Sep. 16—The North Tonawanda City School District is investigating claims of racial abuse toward Niagara Falls players during a junior varsity girls soccer game Thursday.

Members of the North Tonawanda student body allegedly directed racial slurs and made monkey noises at Niagara Falls players during the game at North Tonawanda High School. Lumberjack players were reportedly not involved.

Niagara Falls Superintendent Mark Laurrie said he received copies of text messages sent from a player to a coach detailing the incident late Thursday evening, while a social media post echoed a similar account.

"There are people in the world who don't accept diversity and don't accept dignity in the way they act," Laurrie said. "You always have to be the better person and sometimes being the better person means having to listen to that and move away. If that situation were to occur, I won't put them in that situation ever again."

Niagara Falls Housing Authority Director Samika Sullivan, who was in attendance, wrote in a Facebook post that a Niagara Falls coach convened with a North Tonawanda staff member to address the situation. The staff member allegedly agreed comments were made that were out of line but failed to do anything in response.

Sullivan was seated on the visitor's side of the field during the game and didn't realize the rowdiness of the crowd was racial, but after the game her daughter — who is Black and plays for Niagara Falls — seemed dejected and filled her in on the details.

She claimed a group of boys made comments each time the players ran past their section of the bleachers, made monkey noises and used the n-word on at least two occasions.

"We can't stop people from being racist," Sullivan said. "There's not a magic pill to swallow. But we can nip it when we see it. The players played a great game and were sportsmanlike, so I don't blame them or the coaches directly. I don't know the role of the (staff member), I just know that he agreed that it was wrong and didn't make a move to do anything about it."

Through his secretary, North Tonawanda Superintendent Gregory Woytila declined to speak with GNN Sports, but he did release a statement on social media.

"The entire North Tonawanda Schools District is saddened and outraged at the alleged behavior of a group of students at the home JV soccer game last evening.

"The Board of Education and the entire staff here in North Tonawanda take this seriously and are investigating it further. Both Niagara Falls and NT administration are working together to get to the bottom of this."

Laurrie said he exchanged multiple emails with Woytila regarding the matter throughout the day Friday as both attempted to cobble together facts and details leading to who was potentially involved.

"He's asking me for descriptions of kids, descriptions of adults," Laurrie said. "He's trying to drill right into finding who. I'm turning that back over to the coaches, the parents and the athletic director for those investigations. ... I'm sure he's spent the whole day on it."

Although Laurrie said he had not spoken to the NF team — which canceled practice Friday — he did speak to parents to assure them the incident was being taken seriously. Written statements from players and coaches were also taken and shared with North Tonawanda administration.

Laurrie also said he and Niagara Falls athletic director Joe Contento would attend practice Monday and speak to the team.

Niagara Falls has a 59.6% minority enrollment, including 35.8% Black, according to U.S. News & World Report data. North Tonawanda, meanwhile, has a 9.5% minority enrollment, 2.1% of which is Black.

"This lesson goes beyond any math or social studies lesson and I'll give them a score of an A-plus for the way they handled themselves," Laurrie said. "They represented everybody the right way and the adults will handle the disrespectful behavior in an appropriate way."

Exiting the game, Sullivan's daughter said coaches told players not to respond. As someone who hadn't experienced anything like this before, her daughter asked if there was anything that could be done. So Sullivan suggested writing a letter to the North Tonawanda Board of Education, which she did.

"People have started to accept that as normal," Sullivan said. "It doesn't have to be that way. People can feel how they want to feel. Nobody has love everybody. But you don't have disparage people either. You don't have to do the ridiculous things."

Many comments to Sullivan's post detailed incidents of racism during Falls games at North Tonawanda over the years, but she is adamant the focus should be placed on the group of boys who made the comments.

Sullivan, who has spoken to administrators with both schools since and is pleased with their response thus far, wanted the boys ejected from the game and now feels that those who are deemed guilty should not get to attend games in the future.

"I don't want them expelled from school, I don't want charges pressed," Sullivan said. "I think they need to have a conversation with them and just maybe not allow them to come to games. Increase security. ... There should be other security or school personnel there to ensure those things don't get taken out of hand."

Nick Sabato can be reached via email at nick.sabato@gnnewspaper.com or on Twitter @NickSabatoGNN.