A group of white high school soccer fans in Wisconsin chanted racist slurs and “Donald Trump, build that wall” at black and Latina players on an opposing school’s team, WISC-TV reported Saturday.
As Beloit Memorial coach Brian Denu told the news station, some of the minority players on his girls’ varsity team were so rattled by the racist comments made by Elkhorn High School students that they were unable to finish the game.
“They were too upset and distraught over what happened to them,” Denu said. “One of the girls was cradled in the arms of one of our assistant coaches for a good 15 to 20 minutes.”
“Those are just words you’ll never be able to take back from those kids and an experience that you wish you could take back,” Denu continued. “It was really disturbing for them.”
Elkhorn officials are investigating the incident, which they said involved a small number of their students.
In an email to WISC, Elkhorn district administrator Jason Tadlock said the school “confirmed that some students near the sidelines yelled inappropriate/offensive comments toward some of the players.”
Similar incidents have broken out at other high school sports matches since the 2016 presidential race got underway.
In March, a group of white students waving a picture of Trump shouted “build a wall” at opponents from a predominantly Latino school in Indiana. The Latino students chanted, “You’re a racist,” in response.
Trump has promised to build a new wall along the U.S.-Mexico border to deter undocumented immigration if he is elected president.
Asked by NPR’s Cokie Roberts if he was “proud” of white students invoking his name to taunt children of color, Trump said he wasn’t aware of any such incidents.
“I’m not proud of it because I didn’t even hear of it, okay?” Trump told Roberts in early March. “And I don’t like it at all when I hear about it. You’re the first one whose told me about it.”
