IRVINE, Calif. (KNX) — School officials are investigating an incident that took place during a basketball game between Portola High School in Irvine and Laguna Hills High School in which a Black player appeared to be subjected to racist remarks.
According to a statement released Tuesday by the Saddleback Valley Unified School District, “inappropriate and inflammatory comments” were made by a Laguna Hills student during Friday’s game.
The student targeted Portola player Makai Brown with racist remarks including, “Where is his slave owner?” and “Chain him up!” Some of the comments were captured on video and posted to social media.
“I’m angry. I’m hurt. I’ve had emotions that have covered the spectrum,” Brown’s mother, Sabrina Little-Brown, told ABC Los Angeles. She claimed Laguna Hills school officials at first attempted to downplay and hide the video.
Little-Brown posted a copy of the video to her own Instagram page on Tuesday. In an accompanying caption, she directly implicated Laguna Hills boys’ basketball head coach David Yates.
“[Makai] was subjected to verbal abuse [and] aggressive behavior by the Laguna Hills head coach, David Yates,” she wrote. Little-Brown said her husband, Terrell Brown, “yelled at the coach,” asking him not to address Makai. “Subsequently the assistant coach told my husband to ‘meet him outside in the parking lot after the game,’ and of course my husband responded.” Terrell Brown was “escorted out of the game” as a result, Little-Brown wrote.
It was not clear from the Instagram post whether Little-Brown believed Yates was connected to racist commentary in the stands during Friday’s game. But “Laguna Hills [boys’ basketball] fosters a culture of aggression, unsportsmanlike conduct, and racism!” she wrote.
“This has to be brought to light and stopped,” she added, calling for “disciplinary actions” against coaching staff.
"It's deeper than just what that child was saying. Their culture just seems to be broken to where it's just not an environment that feels safe, at least safe for us," Terrell Brown told ABC.
"The language and connotations expressed by the words used do not represent the culture, attitudes, or feelings of the students and staff of LHHS, nor those of Saddleback Valley Unified School District (SVUSD)," said the district.
The student who allegedly made the comments has not been publicly identified, but has been disciplined to an unknown degree by Laguna Hills High School.
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