NEIC takes stand against racism

The Northeast Iowa Conference made national news this past week, and it wasn’t a “feel-good” kind of story.
And NEIC officials reacted strongly Monday when the conference released a statement in which it said the league will “stand strongly for the dignity and rights of our students of color.”
The four-paragraph statement came nine days after fans at Waverly-Shell Rock allegedly yelled racist remarks at a Charles City African American baseball player – including “get back to the fields” and that he “should have been George Floyd,” the Minneapolis man whose death while in police custody led to protests and riots across the county.
Charles City school officials sent a letter to district staff and families Wednesday morning, and although they did not say what team was involved, in an interview with the Charles City Press, Superintendent Mike Fisher declined to identify the other school district involved.
But the district’s communications director, Justin DeVore, said the “situation” happened last week at an away baseball game.
The only road games the Comets played that week were against Waverly-Shell Rock, and later in the week, officials from that school district apologized for the situation.
Reached last week, New Hampton Superintendent Jay Jurrens said he expected NEIC administrators to discuss the situation and “work to find solutions. … This is wrong in so many ways. We have to do better as a conference.”
— For more on this story, see the July 7 Tribune