Teen basketball players face 'I can't breathe' ban
The members of a California high school basketball team barred from participating in a tournament because they continued to wear "I can't breathe" T-shirts, plan a rally Monday, according to a local newspaper.
Members of the Mendocino High School girls basketball team will meet outside the Fort Bragg High School for what a poster said would be a peaceful exercise of free speech rights and to raise awareness of racism and police brutality, said the Santa Rosa Press Democrat.
The coastal communities to the north of San Francisco were thrust into the national spotlight this weekend after the athletic director at Fort Bragg High School said that neither boys nor girls teams from Mendocino would be allowed to participate in the three-day tournament hosted by Fort Bragg out of concerns the players would wear T-shirts printed with the words "I can't breathe."
The phrase, uttered by Eric Garner as police wrestled the unarmed, black man to the ground in Staten Island, N.Y., leading to his death, has become one of the most prominent slogans among protesters who argue that Garner's death and others are caused by entrenched police racism.
The Mendocino High School boys team was reinstated after all but one player agreed not to wear the T-shirts, which the high-school athletes had worn during warm-ups. Too few girls agreed.
Brian Triplett, the athletic director at Fort Bragg High, did not return a call and e-mail to the Associated Press seeking comment. Fort Bragg High Principal Rebecca Walker issued a written statement Friday saying school administrators respected the Mendocino teams "for paying attention to what is going on in the world around them" and that the T-shirts were being prohibited as a security precaution.
"To protect the safety and well-being of all tournament participants it is necessary to ensure that all political statements and or protests are kept away from this tournament," wrote Walker, who said she was speaking on behalf of the athletic director and the Fort Bragg school superintendent. "We are a small school district that simply does not have the resources to ensure the safety and well-being of our staff, students and guests at the tournament should someone get upset and choose to act out."
Professional basketball players such as LeBron James, Derrick Rose and Kyrie Irving wore "I Can't Breathe" shirts during warm-ups this month without repercussions from the NBA. After Kobe Bryant and other Laker player wore them before a game and on the bench on Dec. 9, coach Byron Scott said he viewed it as a matter of "freedom of choice and freedom of speech."
That's how Marc Woods, whose 16-year-old son Connor plans to sit out the tournament, sees it. Connor wore the T-shirt at the Dec. 16 game in the name of team solidarity, but "now that's become a First Amendment violation, that's what he is fired up about," the father said.
Woods, whose father was a California Highway Patrol officer, said he is outraged by what he sees as using intimidation to silence players and fans. Fort Bragg administrators have warned spectators who plan to protest the T-shirt ban that they will be asked to leave, he said.
"It doesn't take a lot to suppress the exchange of ideas when you put fear into it," Woods said.
Both schools are located in Mendocino County, known for redwood forests, rugged coastline and marijuana-growing, located 120 miles north of San Francisco. The student bodies at the two schools are 1% black, 50% white and 41% Hispanic at Fort Bragg; 75% white and 9% Hispanic at Mendocino.