FARRELL, Pa. – Farrell superintendent Dr. Lora Adams-King told Bob Greenburg of Sports Radio 96.7 FM that the school will be filing a formal complaint with the PIAA governing bodies in response to an incident that took place at Jamestown High School on Thursday, Sept. 28, when the Steelers played the Muskies in volleyball.
“While we acknowledge Jamestown School District’s response and purported investigation into the incident occurring at a girls’ varsity volleyball match, we feel that it is in the best interests of our student-athletes to move forward with filing a formal complaint with the governing bodies to ensure that a complete and unbiased investigation is done,” Adams-King said. “We simply cannot stand by and allow for such flagrant conduct to be excused as unintentional.”
The incident in question involved a few Jamestown students wearing red bonnets or sleeping caps at the Sept. 28 volleyball match (see this link to Ken Moyer’s Facebook page – note that there may be language written on the video that is inappropriate for certain age levels). Many historians have pointed out that head-wraps were worn by enslaved women and were seen by their white European masters as a sign of poverty and subordination, according to PBS New York.
Following the incident, Adams-King released a statement calling the actions of those students “racial” in nature.
Her Jamestown counterpart, Tracy Reiser released a statement offering apologies to the Farrell community while at the same time stating that district administrators conducted “a thorough investigation and concluded that the students had no intentional or malicious intent.”
That statement and investigation weren’t enough to satisfy Farrell, who will now ask the PIAA to look into the matter. Greenburg reports that the PIAA District 10 committee will discuss the matter at its Wednesday, Oct. 4, meeting.
