High school cancels rest of baseball season after players protest coach’s removal amid Title VI investigation

A Florida high school has canceled the remaining six video games of its baseball season after gamers walked out in protest of the dismissal of their head coach.

Fort Myers High School Principal Robert Butz emailed dad and mom of gamers on the group to tell them the season had been lower brief.

“After assembly with each varsity baseball household and evaluating our choices for the remainder of the season, I need to inform you that I’ve made the choice to cancel the remainder of our baseball common season and district play,” Butz wrote. 

“This was not a simple choice to make, however the present standing of our group and training workers doesn’t present a viable path ahead for the rest of the season.”

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Fort Myers Excessive College canceled the remainder of its baseball season amid a Title VI investigation. (Fox Information)

The group has been mired in controversy since February, when assistant coach Alex Carcioppolo allegedly used a racial slur when referencing his gamers in a group group chat. He allegedly wished the group a “Joyful Valentine’s Day,” adopted by the N-word, and he was faraway from his position two days later.

The College District of Lee County launched a Title VI investigation towards the group March 8. Title VI of the Civil Rights Act “prohibits discrimination on the premise of race, shade, or nationwide origin in any program or exercise that receives Federal funds or different Federal monetary help.” 

On April 5, head coach Kyle Burchfield, whereas remaining a social research trainer on the faculty, was faraway from his place with the group. 

Fox 4 Southwest Florida notes he was eliminated “due to the integrity of the investigation.” The day after Burchfield’s elimination, members of the group walked out in protest throughout a recreation towards Estero Excessive College, which resulted in a forfeit. 

The varsity was additionally fined $500 for unsportsmanlike conduct after its athletic director, Steve Cato, reported the incident.

The MLB emblem on batting apply balls earlier than a recreation between the Peoria Javelinas and the Mesa Photo voltaic Sox at Sloan Park Sept, 21, 2019 in Mesa, Ariz.  (Jill Weisleder/MLB Images by way of Getty Photographs)

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“We’re nonetheless making an attempt to establish all the gamers and coaches concerned,” Cato wrote to the FHSAA. “We did have 5-6 gamers who remained on the sector and within the dugout to play the sport, however with out sufficient to proceed we needed to forfeit the sport.” 

Cato wrote that the walkout stemmed from an “ongoing state of affairs throughout the baseball program.”

Some households allege the walkout focused the team’s Black players.

“Not one Black group member was instructed in regards to the walkout. In order that they weren’t in a position to take part,” Dee Tucker, the guardian of a participant, instructed WINK information in Fort Myers. “It was deliberate just for two Black youngsters to be left behind. That is 100% premeditated and malicious.”

Head coach Kyle Burchfield was faraway from his teaching position final week. (Mike Carlson/MLB Images by way of Getty Photographs)

“This has left me to query the ethics and habits by friends and adults witnessed by impressionable younger males,” added one other guardian, Shane Riley.

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Cato didn’t instantly reply for remark.