Racials Slurs Yelled At Players In Several Massachusetts High School Football Games
WORCESTER (CBS) -- Some schools in Massachusetts are struggling with bad behavior at football games.
St. John Paul II School in Hyannis forfeited Friday's game after players were accused of using racial slurs last weekend.
At Foxboro High School, the Superintendent asked parents to talk with their kids about rude behavior and vulgar language at high school games.
And at Worcester Technical High School, one of Friday's games was moved from night to day because of what happened after the whistle of another game.
A few weeks ago, a fight broke against Georgetown and Roxbury Prep. Some of the black players on Roxbury Prep say they were repeatedly harassed by Georgetown players and fans, and were called the "N" word.
It's still unclear who said it, but an investigation is underway.
"We are living in a time frame of incredible hate and hurt, where people somehow feel entitled to promulgate that hate and hurt," said Dan Lebowitz said, Executive Director of Sports in Society at Northeastern University.
Lebowitz was also called to work with Duxbury High School earlier this year after an external investigation revealed coaches there allowed the use of anti-semitic terms in practice and in games as early as 2010. The coaches have since been fired.
Lebowitz says his organization uses sports as a platform to tackle the issue of hate, violence, and racism head on by engaging in conversations.
"A curriculum that addresses those issues so that they have the chance to take that conversation, move it to change agency, and move it to actual implemental change," he said.
19-year-old Jaden Woodard-Teneus is from Dorchester and currently attending Marist College in New York. The former football and track athlete said he took part in the Sports in Society program, which helped him gain a better perspective.
"We learned more about how to just deal with these certain things, I would so. How to understand like why it's happening. And just realize what is going on around us," he said.
Even at the professional level, Las Vegas Raiders head coach Jon Gruden recently resigned from his position after emails surfaced over a seven-year period where he used racist and homophobic comments.
Lebowitz says a lot of these issues stem from a lack of understanding and empathy.
"Once you embrace that empathy lens of seeing how the world looks from someone else's eyes out, and you understand and you can unpack some of the unconscious bias, you can be a person that actually makes change, and it become incredibly powerful to be positive."
