Heckling’s Slippery Slope – When Does It Cross the Line?

High school basketball games have become increasingly unpleasant for players, coaches, officials, and fans due to chanting and taunting that have sunk to new lows.

• At a Show Low, AZ, high school basketball game, white fans chanted at a visiting Apache team: "We pay taxes, yes we do/We pay taxes, how about you?"
• At Douglas Freeman High School in Richmond, VA, students singled out a star opposing player by shouting "Brokeback Bobby!"
• At South Kitsap High School in Port Orchard, WA, students heckled black players with "Go rob a liquor store!" and "Hooked on phonics!"
• At Sioux Falls, SD, white players have been pummeled with "Kill whitey!" and "Sunscreen!"

To combat the practice, some schools have overreacted with what some consider extreme measures. After fan conduct became so bad at Cumberland Valley High School in Mechanicsburg, PA, the administration outlawed all jeering, bare chests, body-painted slogans, and standing except in certain sections.

"No swearing, nothing negative at all," one student griped. "This school is so strict. I guess they want to keep their good reputation or something."

At a recent home game, the students sat still and barely applauded as both their JV and varsity teams lost. Their scorekeeper later told The Patriot-News: "[The players] are there for their peers. If their peers aren’t into it, how can they get into the game?"

Others feel the new rules are appropriate. "I was nauseated by the behavior of the CV kids," wrote one blogger. "I was embarrassed to be a CV fan that night. I for one am glad they are finally doing something about the brats."

So what’s the solution? Here's how these two institutions handled the situation:

South Kitsap High School. After its students chanted racial slogans at visiting players from Foss High, a predominantly black school, South Kitsap’s principal, athletic director, and student-body president signed a letter of apology and delivered it to Foss. Then they held a summit with Foss students.

"They came and shared how it made them feel," South Kitsap principal Dave Columbini told Teaching Tolerance magazine. Afterward, 10 to 15 students per school from the league were brought in for another meeting during which the students created the Narrows League Sportsmanship Slogan. "It hangs in our gym and is read before every game."

Heart of Illinois Conference. Its student-written Code of Conduct is read by students from each school prior to every contest urging them to, among other things, "respect our officials at all times."

"It gives a lot of guys goose bumps," official Rich Cacciatore told Pantagraph.com. "In the 22 years I’ve been officiating, I don’t think I’ve ever experienced something where a group of people came up with something so positive in the way of sportsmanship."

Another official, Kurt Hartke, said he is hopeful the code will help remind adults that "basketball is a learning experience and it’s supposed to teach you about life. Life is not always fair. We’re all going to make mistakes. There’s never a perfect game. If kids were perfect, coaches were perfect, and officials were perfect, we’d all be real happy. That’s not life."

To read the Code and see a video about it, click here.

[www.pennlive.com, 1/4/08, 1/5/08; http://hjnews.townnews.com, 11/15/08; www.tolerance.org; Los Angeles Times, 1/25/08; www.pantagraph.com, 1/28/08]