HOWELL, MI — Shocking tweets celebrating a “white” team’s victory erupted Thursday following the Howell boys basketball win over Grand Blanc.
Several students in Howell are now facing disciplinary action, according to the high school principal.
Grand Blanc lost 54-49 to Howell in the Class A regional final at Linden High School Thursday.
Among the Twitter messages posted after the game the night of March 13:
“Not only did we beat Grand Blanc but we’re all white. Howell’s the definite winner tonight.”
“All hail white power. #HitlerIsMyDad”
“Tonight was probably one of the most racists nights of my life. I heard so many slurs and expressions. I also said a few things…”
Hastags with other tweets included #kkk, #lightthehcross, #rosaparks, #wewhite.
Howell High School Principal Jason Schrock said he’s well aware of the tweets, and disciplinary action has been taken against those involved.
“The school has responded to each instance and is moving forward,” he said. He would not say what disciplinary action was taken.
Grand Blanc has both black and white players.
Grand Blanc Schools Superintendent Norman Abdella said although it’s “hard to believe that the racial banality expressed through those messages even exists in this day and age,” he believes that Howell administrators will aptly handle the situation.
“It would be totally unfair to judge a district or a school based on the actions of individual students or supporters,” he said in an email statement to The Flint Journal. “I have great confidence that no one in authority within the Howell School District would ever encourage or condone these types of sentiments and expect that they will effectively deal with this situation internally.”
Schrock said he hopes both communities understand that what he believes were knee-jerk reactions of a few teens don’t speak for all of Howell and that the town and school are continuously trying to work themselves out of a rut that history has dug for them.
“A life lesson can be learned for these students without dragging a community’s reputation through the mud,” he said.
Howell was known as the home of former Ku Klux Klan Grand Dragon Robert E. Miles, who died in 1992. He lived in nearby Cohoctah Township, where he hosted KKK cross burnings.
Howell school takes ‘corrective action’ with students over racist tweets
http://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/index.ssf/2014/03/howell_schools_take_corrective.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
Howell High School is taking “corrective action” against four students who went on Twitter and posted race-fueled messages after the school’s all-white basketball team beat the mixed-race Grand Blanc team last Thursday, officials said Tuesday.
“The principal talked to the students and their parents,” said Thomas Gould, director of public relations for the school district. “There has been a corrective action taken in the incident, (but) because of privacy we cannot talk about what the action has been.”
Gould wouldn’t say how old the four students were or what grades they were in. He was quick to point out the four students didn’t have any affiliation with the team, and also couldn’t confirm if the four students were at the game where Howell beat Grand Blanc 54-49 in the Class A regional final at Linden High School Thursday.
Some of the tweets included: “Not only did we beat Grand Blanc but we’re all white. Howell’s the definite winner tonight,” “All hail white power. #HitlerIsMyDad” and “Tonight was probably one of the most racists nights of my life. I heard so many slurs and expressions. I also said a few things…”
Hashtags accompanying some of the tweets included #kkk, #lightthehcross, #rosaparks, #wewhite.
Gould said some of the messages were part of exchanges between Howell and Grand Blanc students on the social media website.
Students who saw the tweets Thursday night brought them to the attention of Howell principal Jason Schrock Friday morning, Gould said.
“They were appalled at what their classmates had put on Twitter,” he said. “It’s not easy for a high school student to report that someone they know, a classmate, did something wrong.”
The students had taken screenshots of the messages and showed the images to Schrock.
“The actions of these select students is not reflective of Howell High School, our student athletes or the Howell community,” the principal stated in a press release. “The fact that it was our students who reported these offensive tweets speaks volumes about our student body who refuse to stand by when they witness this type of behavior.”
The release says that the corrective action is “congruent with the district’s board policy.”
In an interview with The Flint Journal/MLive.com, Grand Blanc basketball senior guard Kevon Miller said he heard racial slurs from the Howell student section, prompting a referee to walk over and say something to the individual.
The district’s press release said that administrators from the school were present in the student section throughout the game. They did not witness a referee addressing the section and no reports were made to the Michigan High School Athletic Association.
“Reports that the Howell student section used racial slurs during last Thursday’s game … are untrue,” the release said.
Race issues are particularly sensitive in the Howell area where several incidents throughout the decades have given that part of Livingston County a bad reputation. Ku Klux Klan Grand Dragon Robert E. Miles, who died in 1992, lived in nearby Cohoctah Township, where cross burnings were frequently held. The KKK also led marches at the county courthouse over the years.
Gould said students are aware of the area’s past, but that the tweets were just a few students and are not representative of the school or the town.
“It’s a part of our past. It’s known. People know what went on,” he said. “It’s an incorrect reputation. That’s not the Howell of today. That’s not the Livingston County of today.”
‘corrective action’, eh?
Hmmmm..
I’ll take dusting erasers and washing blackboards for $1000, Alex. What are your thoughts, Chicas?
Gould said students are aware of the area’s past, but that the tweets were just a few students and are not representative of the school or the town.
Denial is not just a river in Egypt.
Andrew Heller: Don’t just ‘move on’ from racist tweets
http://blog.mlive.com/flintjournal/aheller/2014/03/andrew_heller_dont_just_move_o.html
Hatred is like grape juice. It leaves a stain that doesn’t come out so easily.
And so I wonder if the high school principal in Howell, a small town between Lansing and Brighton, isn’t doing the community a disservice in the case of the racist tweeters.
If you missed it, following a high school basketball game last weekend, a few Howell teens crafted some intellectually-stimulating tweets about their school’s victory:
“Not only did we beat Grand Blanc but we’re all white. Howell’s the definite winner tonight.”
“All hail white power. #HitlerIsMyDad”
“Tonight was probably one of the most racists nights of my life. I heard so many slurs and expressions. I also said a few things…”
The hashtags these developing Shakespeares came up with were even worse: #kkk, #lightthehcross, #rosaparks, #wewhite.
As you have probably surmised, the Howell team featured all white players. Grand Blanc’s squad included some (gasp) black players.
After the tweets began making the Internet rounds, Howell High School Principal Jason Schrock swung into action, doing … something.
“The school has responded to each instance and is moving forward,” he said coolly. He would not say what that response was … a stern talking-to perhaps? Clapping erasers after school? A suspension?
People in both public school districts deserve to know more.
Here’s where Principal Schrock blew an opportunity, though. He said, “Let us be able to work with the students who made these mistakes, who have self-corrected. We have addressed it with them and their families and we’d like to move on and focus on the positive things.”
Red flags all over that statement. Self-corrected? Uh, I don’t think so, pal. Just because the teens involved posted apologetic tweets (my favorite: “All the ‘expletive’ that was said tonight was not OK, and for that I apologize,” as if somebody else said all that ‘expletive.’) doesn’t mean all’s right with the world.
Howell, I should mention, has a past, and it can’t be denied just because the families and the principal want to “move on” as fast as humanly possible. As MLive’s coverage pointed out, “Howell was known as the home of former Ku Klux Klan Grand Dragon Robert E. Miles, who died in 1992. He lived in nearby Cohoctah Township, where he hosted KKK cross burnings.”
That’s the grape juice I referred to earlier. Like it or not, Howell is stained by Miles and his ilk. It’s grossly unfair to blame the town and its people for his actions. As in most situations, it’s the few who taint the many. By the same token, it’s also the many who tolerate the few, and that’s Howell’s shame and its challenge.
The town shouldn’t let the principal get away with sweeping this under the rug. They should use those tweets to begin a community-wide dialogue about hatred and intolerance. Confront the past. Don’t run from it.
It’s the only way to permanently remove a stain.
“By the same token, it’s also the many who tolerate the few, and that’s Howell’s shame and its challenge.”
Indeed, the many who tolerate the few. They are the enablers, those who say nothing or make excuses, tell us that it’s over and we should all move on.
When teenagers are already this bad at such a young age, I shudder to think about what they will be like in ten years. This isn’t the kind of thing that people outgrow.
*applause*
Principal Jason Schrock and Coach Nick Simon are enablers. They want to sweep it under the rug and move on and live in denial. They could have used this as a teachable moment but they FAILED the students, school and community.
THIS:
:”When teenagers are already this bad at such a young age, I shudder to think about what they will be like in ten years. This isn’t the kind of thing that people outgrow.”
So true, see George Zimmerman, and Michael Dunn’s hateful, racist, murderous actions.
Lawrence Brewer, John King, Shawn Berry.
If this town were serious about redeeming itself, the obvious place to start is with the young people. Jason Shrock and Nick Simon clearly don’t understand that and they become part of the problem, not the solution.
Well, you reap what you sow. Howell seems destined to be one of the ugly faces of racism left in this country. Right up there with Sanford, Florida.
ALL OF THIS!
…. yes, and until these folks deal with and own their behaviors and actions, there will be more of these white angry men coming out of the woodworks to maim and murder.
Improbable run ends for Howell in Class A quarterfinals
http://www.livingstondaily.com/article/20140319/SPORTS/303190002/Improbable-run-ends-Howell-Class-quarterfinals-video-photo-gallery-
DAVISON — What looked like a mismatch on paper was even more lopsided on the hardwood.
A Howell basketball team with nobody taller than 6-foot-3 had the monumental task of containing Mount Pleasant senior Jaleel Hogan, a University of Detroit recruit who checks in at a robust 6-foot-7 and 250 pounds.
It was no contest.
Hogan scored the game’s first six points to spark a 9-0 run and scored 18 of his game-high 21 points in the first half, as the Oilers rolled to a 69-39 victory over the Highlanders in a Class A quarterfinal Tuesday night at Davison High School.
********************
KARMA! When evil gets to rockin; KARMA comes a knockin!
Ha ha, I love this. The talented players move to the next level and they understand what these team sports are really about. Congratulations to Jaleel Hogan, maybe we’ll see him on ESPN in the near future.
As for the all white Howell team players, they won a game and their little white friends made it about their hatred for black people and got national recognition for the team, but not the good kind. Amazing.
But Jaleel Hogan and those who are talented and dedicated to the sport will win the games, play on college teams, and some of them will move up to the professional teams.
The point is that everyone knows who the talented players are, everyone knows who is going to the next level. The rest of you are supposed to have a good time, learn something from being part of a team, and enjoy the years of your youth. Too bad the parents, teachers, coaches, etc… are unable to teach that to their children. And they will never fix this problem as long as they continue to make excuses and place the blame on a few misguided teens.
As for the all white Howell team players, they won a game and their little white friends made it about their hatred for black people and got national recognition for the team, but not the good kind. Amazing.
Precisely! Howell hadn’t won a Class A regional final title since 1927. But they won’t be remembered for their stats, how well they played the game, or who was most valuable player but they’ll ALWAYS be remembered for their racists taunts after waiting 87 years to win. Way to damage your school and community, little racist creeps!
BWA HA HA HA
KARMA, it’s what’s for breakfast, lunch, and DINNER!
Tweets show we still have work to do
http://www.livingstondaily.com/article/20140319/OPINION01/303190017/Tweets-show-we-still-work-do
The shame of it is that a few stupid words — words sent out over Twitter in the wake of Howell High School’s regional championship — can do so much damage.
“Four or five” students, according to the district administration, sent out tweets about “white power” and the KKK after Howell’s all-white basketball team won the game against a mostly black Grand Blanc squad.
Inappropriate, hurtful … just plain stupid. Any member of any minority group, inside or outside this community, just has to view such comments with serious trepidation that such age-old hatreds continue to resurface in this country. These comments did damage to race relations everywhere.
They tainted the reputation of the Highlander basketball team’s run deep into the playoffs in the minds of many people, even though no member of the team had anything to do with the tweets. In fact, members of the team were quite distressed by the situation.
And the tweets also damaged the reputation of the Howell community, once again. Unfair as it may be, outsiders time and again see the actions of a few and blame the entire community.
The Howell Public Schools administration says it has identified the students and is taking “corrective action.” Citing student confidentiality, the district has declined to say exactly what that action is.
We can only hope these youngsters learn from it.
What is clear is that the work of those who want Howell to be a welcoming community with a reputation for openness and tolerance, such as the Livingston Diversity Council, still have work to do.
For all of the efforts of the council and its supporters, for all of their accomplishments, these old attitudes die hard, and sometimes get renewed life in new generations. Acceptance is a value we have to teach to each generation.
And reputations once earned, deserved or not, are hard to shake off.
Racist tweets won’t stop Howell vs. Mount Pleasant game set in Davison
http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2014/03/howell_basketball_coach_says_h.html
HOWELL, MI — The boys basketball state quarterfinal game between Howell and Mt. Pleasant will occur as scheduled in Davison Tuesday, March 18, following a furor over racist tweets sent from some Howell students after their team beat Grand Blanc Thursday, March 13.
John Johnson, communications director for the Michigan High School Athletic Association, said he’s not aware of any requests made to the MHSAA asking that Howell be disqualified or forced to forfeit the game.”That would be unprecedented to have someone petition, requesting a team be withdrawn, regardless,” Johnson said.
Johnson said that conflicts that happen outside of the game are best handled on the local level, adding that from his understanding there appears to be action taken.
Howell officials have said students were disciplined over the matter but have declined to detail the punishment.
Howell boys basketball coach Nick Simon said the racist tweets sent out by students Thursday night following his team’s 54-49 win over Grand Blanc isn’t an accurate reflection of the Howell area.
“Being here, I think it couldn’t be further from the truth,” Simon said. “It’s unfortunate that the action of a couple sadly reflect on the people that don’t feel that way at all.”
Simon said he was made aware of the messages Saturday morning by Howell athletic director Dan Hutcheson. Simon said doesn’t have a Twitter account, “nor do I go on Twitter,” but reiterated that it wasn’t an accurate reflection of the town.
He said he has never heard a racial slur thrown during his team’s games, particularly ones against Grand Blanc.
Kevon Miller and Nick Randle, both players on the Grand Blanc boys basketball team, told The Flint Journal that they heard the N-word hurled “several times” from the Howell student section Thursday night.
The Howell bench was situated on the opposite side of the court from the designated Howell seating area.
“No, absolutely not,” Simon said when asked if he heard racial slurs from Howell students. “We always have a security person sitting right in front of the student section. I would have been made aware of anything that has happened.
“I assure you that if anything like that was said, those people would have been promptly removed from the premises. I have never heard any remarks from their coach, their players. This is the first I’m hearing of anything like that.”
Grand Blanc head coach Rob McRae could not not be reached for comment.
Howell boys basketball coach Nick Simon said the racist tweets sent out by students Thursday night following his team’s 54-49 win over Grand Blanc isn’t an accurate reflection of the Howell area.
*************************
Really?
After two drunken teenagers burned a cross in the yard of one of Howell’s only black families in 1989. http://www.csmonitor.com/1994/1003/03071.html
Robert Miles,a Howell resident,was arrested 4 bombing school buses in a Detroit suburb following an integration order.http://www.csmonitor.com/1994/1003/03071.html
Eric Brittner, athletic director at Pioneer High School in Ann Arbor, Mich., says in recent years, black members of the school’s boys and girls basketball teams have been taunted during games at Howell, and his school has limited the number of games its athletes play there.
http://www.csmonitor.com/1994/1003/03071.html/(page)/2
Denial by this coach will only cause this racist cancer to spread boldly.
As usual they’re traveling down that river in Egypt called DENIAL.
I believe that hearts BLOOMING with love can send out a healing energy to better the world.
Nothing’s changed, they’ve just kept it hidden well. THANK GOD FOR TWITTER
Michigan Town Battles Image of Racism
By Sam Walker, Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor / October 3, 1994
Livingston 2001 group resists image of their community as a bigoted backwater. Local leaders urge neighbors to stay away from Ku Klux Klan rallies and to help children find alternatives to prejudice
HOWELL, MICH.
STANDING behind the counter of the Cohoctah General Store just north of here, Elizabeth Brewer tells a dark secret.
Last spring, flanked by four classmates from Howell High School, she tromped out to a clearing in the woods to watch a handful of Ku Klux Klan members, draped in sheets, set fire to a cross made of two-by-fours. The experience, she says, “turned my stomach.”
Yet to many Michigan residents, Miss Brewer’s admission is not much of a surprise. Howell, seat of rural Livingston County 50 miles west of Detroit, has a reputation for being the kind of place where a person of color wouldn’t want to see the sun go down.
But that image is changing. Fed up with their town’s depiction as a bigoted backwater, Howell’s political, religious, and business leaders have begun to make inroads in a five-year fight for civic redemption.
After two drunken teenagers burned a cross in the yard of one of Howell’s only black families in 1989, outraged residents formed Livingston 2001, a countywide group committed to providing children with alternatives to racial prejudice.
http://www.csmonitor.com/1994/1003/03071.html
So much for Principal Jason Schrock’s knee jerk reaction BULLSHIT!
The little IGNORANT PUNK who used the hashtags ##lightthehcross #KKK
Crossing burning is a symbol by the KKK that stands for hate and terror against African Americans communities in this country.
The Klan’s bombings, murders and other attacks took a great many lives, including, among others, four young girls killed while preparing for Sunday services at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala.
http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-files/ideology/ku-klux-klan
4 little girls were blown up in Birmingham at SUNDAY SCHOOL. This is what the KKK did to 4 little girls. This is what the KKK stands for. Is this a got damn joke?
Some Howell students apologized for the racist tweets saying it was a joke.
***********************************
This makes my blood boil. Racism is not a damn joke, mofos! African Americans suffered unspeakable terrorism from the KKK’s hate, lynching and cross burnings. How the hell is THAT a joke?
Tell it, SG2!
This is for them:
See above article with link 1994 CSM wrote about Howell’s racism.
It’s NO JOKE, IT’S WHO THESE BOYS AND THEIR FAMILIES ARE.
I just returned from reading it, Ametia. This is so awful…Something needs to be done about it.
And, today, I just finished reading “Dude, Where’s My Black Studies Department?: The Disappearance of Black Americans from our Universities” which spends a lot of time discussing institutional racism.
These kinds of things make me stronger in re-dedicating myself to stand up and speak out against racism.
Where is the state athletic commission? At a previous game, Howell students were so racially offensive, the referee had to walk over to the student section.
All of the ugliness and hatred that has reared its head since November 3, 2008 with PBO getting elected and 2012 re-election is being recorded. It’s a part of HISTORY that can and will not be DENIED.
This is true. You are right, Ametia.
Hateful racists will ALWAYS remain isolated in their group.
Haters sizzle when they witness love and understanding among people of diversity.
Love with its shining light will ALWAYS conquer the darkness of hate and fear.
Good comment, Yahtc!
Our love will drown out their hate, won’t it SG2? :)
We are all brothers and sisters and are enriched by our different colors, ethnicities, backgrounds and traditions.
Let there be love.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=o4fWN6VvgKQ
All white high school team wins game, racists ‘white power’ tweets follow.
Disturbingly racist tweets followed a Michigan high school basketball team’s win on Thursday.
Several students at Howell high, a predominantly white school, are now facing disciplinary action for their “white power” tweets after the boy’s team beat Grand Blanc.
http://www.blackyouthproject.com/2014/03/all-white-high-school-team-wins-game-racists-white-power-tweets-follow/
Tim Robinson: Students’ racist Twitter posts taint Howell with ignorance
http://www.livingstondaily.com/article/20140317/SPORTS/303170001/
This weekend, a small, very small, yet toxic part of Livingston County history bubbled forth from the ignorant ooze from which it came.
It’s a drop, a small drop, but it once again casts aspersions on an entire community based on the ignorant assumptions of a tiny minority.
They came after Howell beat Grand Blanc in the regional basketball final on Thursday night, and they came on that platform where some people clearly relish their ignorance: Twitter.
Stuff about how Howell’s win was a win for white power. Stuff about proud racism.
Well, “stuff” is the word I use here. The real word rhymes with the first syllable of “Twitter.”
Because that’s what it is. Feel free to add “bull.”
The people who posted some of this stuff were Howell High School students. School officials told MLive.com that they would discipline those responsible, since it wasn’t that hard to figure out who did.
Once they got caught, they apologized or said it was a joke.
The joke is that these kids don’t have the slightest idea about sports.
I’m going to bet that they weren’t in attendance when Grand Blanc beat Howell twice during the regular season.
They weren’t with the team this year as it figured out, for the first time in a generation, that winning basketball is more than showing up the first day of practice, throwing up 3s and throwing down dunks.
It is about a nearly year-long commitment to the game, to each other, to winning. Not being white.
It’s about sticking together in good times and bad, to trusting each other and playing for each other. About finding a way to understand the game, understanding how to win and making the commitment to winning.
Skin color has nothing to do with that.
Some of the biggest wins for this program came over the summer, when the people who posted the tweets were nowhere near the gym.
Grand Blanc’s Kevon Miller told MLive that Howell students yelled racial slurs at him in the two previous games, especially during the game at Howell. The website reported a referee walked over to the student section after an individual used a slur during Thursday’s game.
More at the link above.
“A life lesson can be learned for these students”
******************************
Like what? Don’t post anything racist on social media? Mofo please!
It took centuries for these boys to learn how to be RACISTS. What pray tell, does the principal think these boys are going to learn from their despicable behavior? To hide it and not tweet about it. They might as well wear their robes and hoods.
Howell Principal Jason Schrock: Several students in Howell are now facing disciplinary action.
**********************************
What? A good talking to? Fuck outta here!
Howell is known for its racism. These boys probably have been taught about it since they were tots. Ku Klux Klan Grand Dragon Robert E. Miles hosted a many cross burnings nearby. That’s why the student tweeted using the hashtag…#lightthehcross. Young trifling racist THUGS!
Kreepy Kold Kriminals!
Kowardy Klamy Kornballs
Tell her off…..don’t stop, SG2!!!
Good job, SG2!!
“Schrock said he hopes both communities understand that what he believes were knee-jerk reactions of a few teens don’t speak for all of Howell and that the town and school are continuously trying to work themselves out of a rut that history has dug for them.”
I don’t believe for a nanosecond that these were “knee-jerk reactions of a few teens.” Hell, these little a$$holes appear to be more organized than not, leading me to believe this kind of racist trash talk happens all the time when they are together. I would guess it is part of their subculture. Did any of the white boys on the team object and tell the “few teens” that this was offensive and racist?
And the part about the town “continuously trying to work themselves out of a rut that history has dug for them” is 100 percent denial. This isn’t history, this is the here and now, a current event. These little a$$holes are being raised by racist a$$holes. They learn this at home from the parents, the relatives, the neighbors, and probably most of the white people in their racist town. It is passed down from one generation to the next. Because, if that were not true, they would be too scared to do this, scared of the consequences, and they obviously are not.
I wonder how many of these little freaks will make it to the NBA. My guess is zero.
Liza, well stated!
These boys are the John Kings, Lawrence Brewer, Shawn Berry, Michael Dunn, and George Zimmerman in the making. They’ve been taught this kind of racist hate at home. Children live what they’ve learned.
Please Tweet: Howell boys B-Ball team UNAWARE of BLACK TWITTER!
THIS: “All hail white power. #HitlerIsMyDad”
THIS:
The Howell basketball players that tweeted this racist bullshit, their behavior is the makings of a angry white men, who rolls up on black teenage boys at a gas station and open fire on their SUV, because they wouldn’t turn down their music at his bidding.
KNOW WHAT I MEAN?
SPEAK! These boys learned this hateful ISH at home. And Principal Jason Schrock spewing bullshit about knee jerk reaction. What? A knee jerk reaction to racially taunt? GTFOOH!
And they are athletes who represent the school. They all need to be suspended from school and KICKED off the team. Wait! No problem, they’d just be replaced with more white boys who probably have the same RACIST genetic coding.
Their team needs to be banned from the league!!
@Yathc I wouldn’t want any of my children or relatives playing on or with this team. These boys need to BE GONE, LIKE YESTERDAY.
I so agree. They should be removed PERMANENTLY from the team, and this should be on their permanent record so that colleges will be aware of these racists kids and not allow them to play on their teams.
These boys MEANT.EVERY.WORD. they tweeted. It’s in their DNA. These white boys were taught they’re whiteness is better, superior. and hashtaging using Hilter’s name? MOFOS please, SKIN HEADS in the making.
I hope you Re-tweet the shit out of this post, SG2.
Howell High School Principal Jason Schrock says he doesn’t want students racist tweets to blow up the problem on social media. Just move along everyone. Hell to the NO. Where is the state athletic commission on this? They should be the ones to discipline the students. These kids learned this hateful behavior at home. A good talking to will NOT do.
It wasn’t enough for them to embrace the B-ball win and keep on moving, nope, their hate-filled minds and hearts had to let it rip, because you know, they’re an “all-white team.” And in their pea brains, that proves their superior.
I can’t believe the LAME ASS nonsense excuse given by the principal. A knee jerk reaction? To use racist taunts against a team is a knee jerk reaction? WTFF? / SMACK!