Students at a Florida high school have used their collective voices to protest the dismissal of two of their school’s baseball coaches, including one who used a racial slur in a private student group text.
While the effort demonstrated a commitment to the coaches, it resulted in a forfeiture of the rest of the team’s season.
Officials canceled the last six games of the year, impacting the team’s already dismal season record.
Robert Butz, the principal at Fort Myers High School, has removed two key members of the school’s coaching staff, head coach Kyle Burchfield and assistant coach Alex Carcioppolo.
Carcioppolo was fired and is under investigation for violating the civil rights of some of his students when he used the N-word in a team group chat. In February, he typed, “Happy Valentine’s Day, N*****.”
According to WINK, the assistant coach was removed from his position within 24 hours of sending the text.
A Title VI probe was then launched by the Lee County School District on March 8 to investigate whether his comments discriminated against any of the students “on the basis of race, color, or national origin,” particularly since the public school and the sports program “receives in Federal funds or other Federal financial assistance” to run, according to FOX 4 Now.
On April 5, almost two months after the Carcioppolo investigation started, Burchfield was removed as head coach. Officials argued he was ousted from the post “because of the integrity of the investigation.”
Burchfield still remains a social studies teacher on campus.
The next day, in protest of this decision by the district, some team members walked out in protest during a game against Estero High School.
Fort Myers athletics director Steve Cato reported the incident to the district, noting that the walkout essentially was related to the investigations and targeted Black students on the team.
“We are still trying to identify all of the players and coaches involved,” Cato wrote to the FHSAA. “We did have 5-6 players who remained on the field and in the dugout to play the game, but without enough to continue we had to forfeit the game.”
One player’s parent, Dee Tucker, told WINK, “Not one Black team member was told about the walkout. So, they weren’t able to participate.”
“It was planned only for two Black kids to be left behind,” Tucker continued. “This is 100 percent premeditated and malicious.”
As a penalty for what was considered unsportsmanlike conduct, the school was fined $500, and the team forfeited the game.
As a result, the school canceled the team’s scheduled practices as it conferred with staff and parents about the ordeal.
The principal was faced with a double dilemma. He had no team and no coaches. He concluded that the season, where the team lost the first seven games, would prematurely end.
Butz emailed players’ parents the unfortunate news, explaining how he and other administrators exhausted all options before arriving at the decision.
“After meeting with every varsity baseball family and evaluating our options for the rest of the season, I must inform you that I have made the decision to cancel the rest of our baseball regular season and district play,” Butz wrote.
“This was not an easy decision to make,” the principal said in the letter, adding, “The current status of our team and coaching staff does not provide a viable path forward for the remainder of the season.”
During the April school board meeting, parents reacted to allegations of racial discrimination, calling it “upsetting.”
Parents were told the principal will now set up individual meetings with families to assess the future of the program and options for their student-athletes.
Butz also said he would provide an update on the status of the investigation in the upcoming week.
