By Victor Omondi
Police officers in Illinois are looking into an 11-second video that has surfaced online showing a young Black high school football player forced to sit in a locker room full of banana peels on Thursday, April 8.
In the hazing incident, the student, who reportedly attends Moline High School in Illinois, was targeted in an incident termed by Moline Police Chief Darren Gault as a “disturbing racist scene.”
As reported by the Moline-Coal Valley School District officials, they were aware of the viral video of the incident, which was circulating on social media on Friday. All the players involved have been identified.
“We all agree that this is a disgusting way to treat a fellow teammate, a fellow human being, and most certainly a friend,” Gault said.
In the viral video, the player filming, whose face is not shown, threatened to “break both (the Black player’s) knees” if he does not sit inside the locker with banana peel hanging inside of it.
When the Black player finally sat, the person filming, together with other team members, could be heard laughing and cheering.
The truly awful video was quickly shared widely around social media with individuals calling for immediate action to be taken.
On Friday evening, after the district officials learned about the video, detectives conducted interviews of students, athletes, and staff members over the weekend and turned the findings over to prosecutors. As stated by Gault, the people involved were “of both different and similar races to the victim.”
In addition, the district officials are also conducting an ongoing probe into whether there was any school code or district policy violations.
And as a police investigation is still underway, Gault also confirmed that the school will also be conducting its own internal investigation.
The poor victim, whose name has not been made public, released a U.S. News & World Report as roughly 56 percent white, 27 percent Hispanic, and less than 10 percent Black.
She added that it is important that the community works together to stimulate “respectful and accepting treatment of all in and out of the classroom, on and off the field, and inside and outside of our schools.”
