(NAME-MCE) No hint of last year’s tournament slurs Eugene OR

[Anselmo Villanueva]

North Eugene expects no hint of last year's tournament slurs

By Anne Williams

The Register-Guard  Eugene OR

http://www.registerguard.com/csp/cms/sites/dt.cms.support.viewStory.cls?cid=76534&sid=4&fid=1

Published: March 12, 2008 12:00AM

A year ago this week, North Eugene High School's triumph in the boys
Class 5A basketball tournament at Eugene's McArthur Court was marred
by allegations of racial taunts and a storm of media attention.

The top-ranked Highlanders have a second shot at the state title this
week — and no matter which team wins the championship, school
administrators say they're confident that North Eugene players and
spectators alike will make the community proud.

"We've learned a lot of lessons," said Laurie Henry, North Eugene's
campus administrator. "Racial things happen, inappropriate things
happen, but our students know there is absolute zero tolerance for
everything like that. Just through conversations, activities
assemblies — we've addressed it multiple times, in multiple ways, and
I just have confidence in my students."

Twin investigations last spring — one by the Eugene district's chief
security adviser, the other commissioned by the Oregon School
Activities Association — backed assertions by students and staff
members from Roosevelt High School in Portland that North Eugene and
Churchill fans, both teens and adults, yelled racial epithets at them
in the aftermath of two separate games during the tournament.
Investigators also found that there had been inappropriate behavior on
the part of Roosevelt fans.

The incidents led to changes in expectations for fan behavior, as well
as new strategies for crowd management — some instigated by the
schools themselves, others agreed upon by Midwestern League coaches
and administrators, and others instituted by the OSAA. For example,
gone is the Eugene custom of turning backs when the visiting team is
introduced, and yelling at individual players or displaying negative
signs isn't tolerated.

"Really, knock on wood, the kids have been great, with both football
and basketball," Churchill High School Principal Dennis Biggerstaff
said. "If we've heard anything at all, (administrators) have been
right there to stop it. I've been very proud. There were a lot of
students that were upset about the kind of press that we got so,
there's a lot of interest in showing that's not who we are."

North Eugene administrators handed out tickets Tuesday to today's game
with second-ranked Jefferson High from Portland, and included with
them a half-sheet of directions and guidelines for sportsmanlike
behavior.

Fans from the two schools will be escorted in and out of Mac Court on
opposite sides, Henry said, and the North Eugene crowd won't be
anywhere near the buses transporting Jefferson players and fans home
after the game. Such proximity proved combustible last year, with many
of the nasty exchanges occurring while buses were loading.

Last year's episode also sparked difficult but important conversations
within and among the three schools — and that, some say, could be the
most beneficial fallout from what was a wrenching experience for many
involved.

"It's been the catalyst for some more honest conversations about the
issues of race and culture that go on, not just between schools but
within schools," said Johnny Lake, an administrator on special
assignment who co-facilitated retreats for students from the three
schools and is teaching a diversity-focused leadership class at North
this year. "So you have more students that are taking leadership roles
that are participating and leading these conversations and addressing
within schools the same kind of issues."

The 20-some students in his leadership class, who represent the full
diversity of the student body, are working on a protocol for
schoolwide communications, he said.

The class is one of several ways in which both North Eugene and
Churchill — as well as other district high schools — are working to
address tensions over racial and cultural differences and the
district's growing diversity.

Last year, North students took part in racism study circles (something
planned before the tournament incidents), while Churchill started a
diversity club made up of students and staff. North will send teams
from each of its three small schools to a Eugene Education Association
diversity training next month.

Meanwhile, the district has maintained its four-year membership in the
Minority Student Achievement Network, a coalition of multiracial urban
and suburban school districts focused on supporting high achievement
among students of color, particularly Latinos and African-Americans.
Each year, the district sends students from each high school to the
network's national conference, and the group continues to meet through
the year.

North Eugene junior Macque Linder was one of 30 students honored as a
"PeaceHero" at the Oregon PeaceMakers conference last November for her
role in a series of three retreats for students from North, Churchill
and Roosevelt held in the wake of last year's tournament.

She's also in Lake's leadership class, and says she's learning the
skills she needs to help build bridges and improve school climate.

"I learned about me as a person and I learned about how to communicate
with people — not just people who are white but with people of all
colors and cultures," said Linder, 16, who spent last weekend in
Portland with two Roosevelt friends she met through the retreats.

She didn't attend the game last year, and said she was initially
reluctant when administrators invited her to the retreat, figuring
that they selected her only because she was African-­American.

"But I really thought it was well worth it," she said.

She said she's tired, though, of revisiting last year's events and
their aftermath in the media.

"It's like they talk about what we've done like we had a good old time
and that's the end of it and nothing else is going on in our district
because of it, and that's not true," she said. "I feel like in no way
is the issue done with, but this incident is done with."