Minneapolis area schools suspend basketball games with rival district after fans made racist 'animal noises' at players: report

On Thursday, the Star Tribunereported that district officials for St. Louis Park and Robbinsdale, Minnesota announced they are suspending basketball games with the New Prague school district after players faced racist taunts from fans.

"'I will not tolerate or allow our students to further experience any racism while participating in athletics against New Prague High School,' St. Louis Park Athletic Director Andrew Ewald wrote in a letter to Brad Skogerboe, his counterpart at New Prague," reported Eder Campuzano. "Ewald said the decision to suspend contests against New Prague came after consulting several St. Louis Park 'stakeholders and leaders, most importantly our students.' St. Louis Park officials will also remove the New Prague banner hanging in the high school gymnasium."

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This comes after reporting last week that during a close girls' basketball game between Robbinsdale and New Prague, the New Prague students began making "monkey noise" at Black players. "Robbinsdale Superintendent David Engstrom said in a statement that the incident "caused trauma to the Cooper High School girls' basketball team and the school community as a whole," noted the report.

This comes amid a series of similar incidents reported around the country, from players being harassed with monkey noises at a high school game in Fowlerville, Michigan, to a college basketball announcer in Twin Falls, Idaho, being fired after he referred to Black players as "thugs."