The basketball team was from a predominately Latino school.
According to reports, a high school basketball official in Arizona was fired after he asked whether players had their green cards. The students were from a majority-Latino school.
A high school basketball official in Arizona was fired after he asked prior to a game whether players from a majority-Latino school district had their green cards, school district officials said. https://t.co/JLaTqkmshD
— NBC News (@NBCNews) January 11, 2019
The basketball official, made the comments during a half-court huddle before a game Tuesday in Sahuarita, south of Tucson.
The game at Walden Grove High School was against a visiting team from Pueblo High in Tucson, a school that, according to U.S. News & World Report, has a nearly 90 percent Latino student body.
Herman House, interscholastic director for the Tucson district, said that the Pueblo High athletic director notified him of the complaints made by parents about the alleged inappropriate statements.
In a statement to NBC News House said, “I asked for the school to get me statements from everyone who had heard the conversation or had knowledge of the conversation.”
In addition, House also alerted state athletics officials of the claims. But they already knew and had taken action by firing the official.
Brian Gessner of the Arizona Interscholastic Association told NBC News, “We reacted quickly. We did our due diligence. We talked to parents, talked to administrators, and talked to officials.”
The basketball official has since “admitted to making an inappropriate comment.”
The Sahuarita school district said in a statement, “We are disappointed that any action or remark would detract” from positive experiences for students.
