Last weekend’s racial incidents between Lincoln-Way East and Homewood-Flossmoor have brought future athletic events between the schools into question.
The Lincoln-Way East freshman football team did not play at H-F on Saturday morning after the racial harassment incident at the varsity football game Friday night. The schools made the decision together after a phone conversation between Lincoln-Way Supt. Scott Tingley and H-F Supt. Jennifer Norrell.
“Tensions were high,” Norrell told the Sun-Times. “We agreed it was better to just spend our day doing more investigations and getting a handle on what happened Friday night. I don’t think either one of us had a good grasp of what was going on.”
Later in the weekend, Homewood-Flossmoor officials accused a Lincoln-Way East girls cross-country coach and team members of racial abuse.
H-F provided written statements from three cross-country athletes describing a Lincoln-Way East coach making comments about “running past those monkeys,” and that some of the Lincoln-Way East team began cheering and making “noises that were racist” and “monkey gestures.”
Lincoln-Way investigated the incident and concluded that “neither its staff nor student athletes intended to harass, intimidate or offend any of their competitors or those competitors’ families.”
Norrell said she is disappointed in Lincoln-Way’s response to the cross-country incident.
“We don’t have to see things from the same political views,” Norrell said. “But common, decent respect for other humans is something, certainly as adults, we can have. How can we continue to be upset with the actions of children when we don’t have adults that will stand up and do the right thing?”
Homewood-Flossmoor has a varsity girls tennis match scheduled at Lincoln-Way East Sept. 12, a golf meet with Lincoln-Way East at Green Garden Country Club Sept. 14, and a boys varsity soccer match against Lincoln-Way East at Homewood-Flossmoor Sept. 16. Both schools are members of the Southwest Suburban Conference.
“I already had kids ask, ‘Are we going to be OK?” Norrell said. “I don’t want my varsity tennis team to have to forfeit an invitational. But I also know that there is some level of fear. What I have told them is at the end of the day, if this is still going on and we don’t have a way out of this that won’t jeopardize our record, I’m going to ride on the bus. I’m going to go with them and sit next to them the entire match. I don’t have anything else we can do. I’m just going to be present and make sure the kids don’t feel unsafe.”
Both of Homewood-Flossmoor’s recent public statements on the incidents mentioned possible legal action against Lincoln-Way East. That is still on the table.
“Right now our board of education attorney is weighing all the options and trying to make a determination,” Norrell said. “They have not decided on a path.”
Norrell said she has spoken with several local politicians since Friday’s incident.
“They want to know how we mend this,” Norrell said. “Our communities are very close. One of the things I told them is that we take our lead from the young people.”
Around 40 Lincoln-Way East students held a school walkout in protest of the racial incidents on Wednesday.
“Our [H-F] students view that as support, hands down,” Norrell said. “They felt supported. We appreciate that they are doing it to show that they too believe it was wrong.”
On Wednesday, the Illinois High School Association told the Chicago Sun-Times that scheduling issues between the schools would be part of their conversations with each school, but it doesn’t typically have much involvement in regular-season scheduling.
Lincoln-Way East and Lincoln Way School District did not respond to requests for interviews.