A baseball coach at Olathe North High Scholl in Kansas has reportedly been fired after telling the team's only Black player to turn off his "n----- music" during batting practice. According to Tony Banks, the father of the team's only Black player, his son was listening to rap music as he went through his routine at batting practice. While he was participating in practice, coach Pete Flood allegedly walked up to Banks's son and told him to turn off his "n----- music."
“We don’t play that N—– music over here. We only play country and rock music," Banks said.
After the incident was reported to school officials, Flood was suspended and later fired. In the aftermath of his firing, Flood has attempted to defend his use of language toward the team's only Black player.
“Never, never, never have I ever used the ‘N-word’ or any other racial slur to address a student, player, or person in my entire 25-year career in this district nor my personal life," Flood told FOX 4.
“On May 6th, a player from my team was playing music on a loudspeaker. As I walked by the speaker, the lyrics of the song said, ‘b------ sucking my c---’ and ‘n----.’ As you could imagine; I was shocked and offended and asked him to turn it off. When that didn’t immediately occur, I repeated, ‘Turn that off, we are not going to play music that says ‘b------ sucking my c--- and n----.’ Change the song, change the artist, change the genre. I don’t care, just turn that s**t off.’ At this point, he turned it off and I continued on to observe the sub-varsity practice. In my opinion, these types of lyrics should never be played in a public venue at a school event."
Regardless of when, how or why Flood used the racial slur, Olathe School Board President Joe Beveridge called Flood's actions "reprehensible." Banks hopes that Flood's use of racist language can spark a larger dialogue about what is and what is not acceptable.
“A lot can change. A lot can be done,” Banks explained.
“Hopefully this will be one of those vehicles that people will say, ‘This got people talking,’ and really show school districts how to handle a situation. It’s unfortunate that it came to this, but I was happy with the decision.”
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