SAN CLEMENTE  (AP) — Students and fans were subjected to a racist taunt and other verbal abuse during a high school football game in Southern California, according to a school investigation.
San Clemente High School officials said its probe found a racial epithet was directed at a student from visiting Lincoln High of San Diego on Sept. 13, the Orange County Register reported Sunday. The slur was made inside a restroom.
“In addition, statements we collected confirmed that derogatory words were heard in our bleachers” directed to visiting fans and students, San Clemente Principal Chris Carter wrote in a letter to both school communities.
Lincoln students and others alleged that several Lincoln cheerleaders and students were the targets of racial slurs and insults at the game.
Carter wrote that he and his staff “deeply regret the pain to both the individual students affected and the Lincoln High School community as a whole and extend our sincerest apologies.”
The letter did not say whether the racial epithet or other derogatory words were uttered by San Clemente students or if any students faced discipline.
“We could not identify the students, but it is believed that they were San Clemente students based on statements we received from both Lincoln High and San Clemente students,” said Capistrano Unified School District public information officer Ryan Burris.
Students from San Clemente and Lincoln will take part in a workshop facilitated by the Anti-Defamation League, according to Carter’s letter.
Last month, officials in nearby Garden Grove said they would reopen an investigation into a group of high school students seen on video giving Nazi salutes last year.
And students from schools in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District faced suspension in an unrelated incident in March after photos emerged of them playing beer pong with cups set up in swastika formation.
___
Information from: The Orange County Register, http://www.ocregister.com