A high school sports team in California has been stripped of their regional championship after flinging tortillas at their mostly Latino opponents, a sports governing authority announced.
The boys’ basketball team at Coronado High School, which is mostly white, exhibited “degrading and demeaning behavior” following an investigation of their post-game activities, the California Interscholastic Federation said in a statement.
The incident received national attention as videos taken after the game showed at least two players from the victorious team taunting and throwing tortillas at their opponents.
As a result, the team is forced to vacate their boys Division 4A regional championship despite their 60-57 win.
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The incident and subsequent backlash also spurred the Coronado Unified School Board to vote to fire coach JD Laaperi. The vote was unanimous.
District Superintendent Karl Mueller also issued a public apology.
Central to the controversy was the question of whether throwing the tortillas was racially motivated.
An unidentified alumnus of the Coronado school, who provided the tortillas to the team, said throwing them was a tradition at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he attended.
The California Interscholastic Federation disagreed, and its state executive director reiterated that “discriminatory and racially insensitive behaviors toward an opponent contravene the principles of education-based athletics.”
“In this instance, there is no doubt the act of throwing tortillas at a predominately Latino team is unacceptable and warrants sanctions,” the statement continued.
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Mueller has yet to say if he will contest or appeal the decision, and he will thoroughly review the federation’s sanctions before doing so.
“We have also retained an outside investigator to thoroughly review the incident, which will guide any additional corrective actions,” a statement from his office said.
In addition to stripping the school of the regional championship, California Interscholastic Federation has prohibited Coronado High School from hosting postseason contests at the sectional, regional, or state level through the 2022-23 school year. The school was also placed on three-year probation.
