A Missouri school district is apologizing for the "unsportsmanlike" and "insensitive" behavior of its white students after one of them held up a Trump sign while the rest of them turned their backs as a black basketball team was introduced at a Monday night game, Fox News reports.
As the site notes, the controversial incident took place during player introductions of the opposing team from Center High School, where the players are all black or biracial, coach LeDale Wooten told the Kansas City Star.
Center alum Toniaa Lakylia Nunn posted the video of the exchange that took place at Warrensburg High School on her Facebook page Monday evening. In the video, most of the Warrensburg student body can be seen turning their backs to the court as the Center players were introduced. One student can be seen clearly holding up a Trump sign.
"I'm appalled by the nonsense i've just witnessed with my own two eyes. Like what the hell?! That's Rude!!!!!," Nunn wrote on her posts, showing two videos that have been shared over 6,000 times.
“My focus was on the basketball game and my guys. I didn’t notice anything,” Wooten told the Star. “Our focus is on basketball and basketball only. Everything else is irrelevant.”
The Warrensburg School District followed up with its own Facebook post, denouncing the students' actions:
Members of our student body acted inappropriately and were insensitive toward our opponents. The Warrensburg R-VI School District does not condone these actions and apologizes to anyone who was offended by the actions of these students. We will do everything we can to keep incidents like this from happening again.
Warrensburg Superintendent Scott Patrick told the Star that the student section has a long-standing tradition of turning its backs during opposing teams' introductions, although he acknowledged that it was unsportsmanlike and not condoned by the administration.
“I think in this case, [the Trump sign] was really the difference in what took this from something that was unsportsmanlike to something that was insensitive, not necessary and inappropriate,” Patrick added.
Despite the frosty welcome, students at Center High went on to win the game 66-62, Fox notes.
Read more at Fox News and the Kansas City Star.