ST. CLOUD — Following repeated instances of racial harassment at high school sporting events, district and community leaders here are calling on the Minnesota State High School League to implement meaningful change that bolsters support for schools and penalizes districts with repeated incidents.
The harassment — typically slurs that target St. Cloud students for their skin color, religion or gender — has happened when students visit other schools in the conference for athletic events. Those communities and districts are often much less diverse than St. Cloud schools, where about 60% of the nearly 9,500 enrolled are students of color and many are children of immigrants or refugees of East African descent.
"Some of the conversations I've had to have this year — and the looks on the faces of students when we're having some very adult conversations about why certain words were used … it's just not right," said Justin Skaalerud, principal at St. Cloud's Apollo High School. "We need to have a way that we can advocate for our kids — all kids."
Harassment isn't a new phenomenon in high school sports. But in the past year, there have been several high-profile incidents, including taunting that prompted some metro districts to sit out athletic contests with districts where their students were harassed.
These and other events spurred St. Cloud school board members last year to publicly ask the League — the organization overseeing extracurricular activities in more than 500 schools — to improve inclusivity and eliminate abusive and racist incidents among members.
In the past year, the League worked with a consultant to organize student summits that culminated in a Jan. 13 conference with several hundred students from across the state. Participants focused on developing a model code of behavior and looking at best practices to reduce harmful behaviors at school events.
But St. Cloud leaders say that doesn't go far enough in addressing their concerns.
"I think this is an important piece. We can have these conferences, the summits — but if we don't have action steps or mechanisms in place to report when our students are in environments where they feel unsafe, I think it's frankly a waste of time," said Jason Harris, principal of Tech High School in St. Cloud, at a recent school board meeting.