PORTLAND, Maine — Superintendents of schools in Portland and Scarborough are investigating allegations that Scarborough students taunted Deering soccer players with racist slurs during a soccer game earlier this month.
Parents at a soccer game between the two schools earlier this month say a group of spectators hurled racist comments at players on the Deering team and used the American flag inappropriately.
Brian Segal is a parent of a Deering student. He was at the game and told CBS 13 a group of Scarborough students were taunting Deering players, saying things like, “Go back to Africa” and then chanting and waving flags.
“My wife got it right away,” Segal said. “I didn’t get it right away. I didn’t get it until the next day. I said, “My God, they’re chanting, ‘We’re USA, you’re not.’”
Deering coach Todd Brennan said, “I see this as premeditated. I see this as something that was organized, in which the student section at Scarborough High School started doing the USA chant and started waving the American flag.”
The Scarborough athletic director released a statement Tuesday saying,
“The flag and the USA chanting have been present at earlier contests by both Scarborough and Scarborough opponents mimicking FIFA game
behavior.”
The superintendents for both school districts are now addressing the allegations. They say they have launched their own investigations and are working to try to stop this kind of behavior from happening again.
Segal tells CBS 13 he wants to see more action taken from the schools.
“These kids come from all over the place. They struggle to get to the USA, and then they get the USA thrown in their face like they don’t belong here. Something is not right about that,” he said.
Coach Brennan agrees.
“This is not something where a sorry works,” Brennan said. “That does not solve this issue. There needs to be education.”