The superintendent of a rural Minnesota school district cancelled a high school basketball team’s scheduled participation in a Monday tournament because a few student fans recently brought a Trump flag to a game.
Last week, students at Jordan High School showed up to a game with a flag that said: “Trump 2020: Keep America Great.” A coach for the opposing team, Minneapolis Roosevelt, took a picture of the students holding the flag and wrote about it on Facebook.
“I coach a predominantly black inner city high school team. We go out to a rural area in Jordan, MN and this is there. Please explain how and why this is appropriate at a high school basketball game?” Michael Walker wrote.
One person commented on his post to explain that she lent the flag to students to be used as part of a planned USA-themed night.
But on Sunday, Jordan School District Superintendent Matthew Helgerson announced that he wouldn’t be allowing the Jordan High School basketball team to participate in an MLK-day tournament.
“Given recent events, we believe the participation of our team in the event will detract from the hard work of the athletes and the upbeat focus of the MLK showcase,” he said. “After discussion with the MLK showcase event coordinator, a decision has been made to pull out of the MLK showcase game on Monday, January 21.”
“We will continue to work with the Minneapolis School District…to move forward in a positive direction,” he added, according to The Star Tribune.
The tournament took place at Minneapolis Patrick Henry, whose coach, Jamil Jackson, said he sympathizes with the Jordan High School athletes, since they “will be thinking the entire day about why they are not playing.”
Both the Minneapolis Roosevelt and Minneapolis Patrick Henry teams have adopted the practice of remaining in the locker room during the national anthem. Jackson said that his team instead plays “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” often considered the black national anthem, during home games.
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Anthony Gockowski is managing editor of Battleground State News and The Minnesota Sun. Follow Anthony on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Image “Trump 2020 Banner” by Michael Zeke Walker.
These coaches are perfect examples of bad leadership
“we believe the participation of our team in the event will detract from the hard work of the athletes”????? Helgerson is an idiot, and the voters in the school district need to raise hell with the district representatives to replace him. The athletes who are being punished for something they did not do are the ones who did and do the “hard work” This is pandering to political correctness ,and liberal philosophies at their worst.
Given black unemployment has greatly fallen under Trump’s policies perhaps the inner city HS kids woul d like to fly the Trump banner instead. Alveda King was very positive about Trump and his commitment to seeing all Americans succeed. That is a solid endorsement.
What’s wrong with that? He’s the president! Why does everyone have to pretend to be offended by anything Trump related? I’m so sick of everyone pretending it’s racist to support our president. #MAGA
Translation from liberal double speak… I’m offended by your free speech so you can’t do or say that.
Freedom of speech is apparently only allowed for those who lean left ! The opposing “offended” coach and team “stay in rhe locker room” for the National anthem … hummm … but thats ok ?
Can you say “HYPOCRITES”
Our country is so divided.. we are already in an ideological civil war. Neighbor against neighbor, brother against brother.. I truly hope for better days for our country and all of our brothers and sisters.
School superintendent did those boys wrong by not allowing them to play.
Time to write this jerk and tell him he needs to apologize. Supporting this country isn’t wrong.
He needs to keep his personal opinions out of the school as well as his Democratic Party issues.
Another perfect example of bigotry. You have native Americans accosting young students while so-called Black Hebrews scream racial epithets yet it’s the white students who get bad media. Now students aren’t allowed to play in a game they trained hard for simply because other students support our President. Yes racism is alive and well and it’s against all things white.
A truer statement has never been made !! There’s racism in our country but it’s against whites!!!
The left and their cultural Marxism need a wood shampoo
“I coach a predominantly black inner city high school team. We go out to a rural area in Jordan, MN and this is there. ”
Here’s your problem, right here…
So if this was a championship game, who forfeits the game for non participation? Surely not the team full of Patriots!
EXACTLY.🙏🇺🇸🦅
Complete and utter snowflake garbage! This is a perfect representation of discrimination and also disrespect for the President, for our country and for all it stands. I’m sure that if they displayed a Black Lives Matter banner, it would have been lauded in the press and everyone would have been throwing kisses at the school. Displaying the Trump banner is similar to displaying the American flag, both indicating pride in our country and its leaders. Being offended by it is incredibly juvenile and petty and those responsible for pulling the team from the tournament should be removed from that decision-making process as they clearly don’t know right from wrong. As for the teams that don’t show respect for the flag and remain in the locker room during the playing of the National Anthem, THOSE are the teams that should have been removed from tournament play!
Agree 100%!!!