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New Ulm High School plans to address the recent incidents regarding homophobic comments made during basketball games against rival St. Peter High.
A recent article published in the Star Tribune cited multiple incidents in which an openly gay student on St. Peter’s High School Basketball team was subjected to homophobic comments from a New Ulm player as well as from teens in the New Ulm student section during the game. According to the St. Peter’s student, these incidents occurred in three separate games against New Ulm’s basketball team.
The first incident occurred during a Jan. 18 game, in which teens from the New Ulm student sections made comments on how the St. Peter’s student was going to “touch player’s groins.”
During a Feb. 15 game with New Ulm, a player made anti-gay comments all game and kept pinching the St. Peter student, resulting in multiple bruises.
During a playoff game against New Ulm on March 8, the St. Peter student faced no verbal harassment but was pinched again by the same player who made anti-gay comments during the last game.
Superintendent Jeff Bertrang confirmed the school was investigating but unfortunately had not known about all the incidents before the Star Tribune article was published.
Bertrang confirmed during the Feb. 15 game, a New Ulm player had made inappropriate and hateful slurs after fouling out. The player was disciplined for these actions, but the disciplinary action was not disclosed. No other incidents were reported to New Ulm schools until the article appear in the Star Tribune, Saturday.
“It left us asking, ‘What did we miss?’” Bertrang said.
He acknowledged there is a student and team in St. Peter that hurt by the incident and said the goal is to support all kids.
Going forward, the high school will hold an assembly with members staff and student council. The assembly is designed to address what is expected of students in terms of conduct.
“We have to accept that New Ulm has a black mark because of this,” Bertrang said. The students will have to understand the perception this created and work to have a better reputation.
St. Peter High School Principal Annette Engeldinger said in the Star Tribune article that everything is on the table with this rivalry’s future. This includes asking New Ulm schools to introduce an equity framework.
New Ulm School has started discussing an equity framework in the school. Its board began holding equity training during board work sessions last June.
Bertrang said these recent incidents support the reason the board started the equity framework in the first place. The New Ulm district’s goal is to provide an equitable education to all students.
The Star Tribune article also addressed another issue that occurred after the March 8 game. The St. Peter team was headed home on a bus, and according to police reports, two cars approached from behind the bus on a two-lane road. One passed the bus then swerved in front, causing the bus driver to hit the brakes. A second vehicle pulled up next to it. Coaches and players heard loud thudding noises hitting the side of the bus, like paintballs. Then the cars did it again.
On Thursday, the Nicollet County Sheriff’s Office cited four New Ulm students for disorderly conduct. The maximum penalty for the misdemeanor is 90 days in jail and a $1,000 fine or both.
The sheriff’s office said the teens had fired at the bus with a full-automatic water gel ball gun, which shoots 7.5mm water bead ammunition at 200 feet per second.
There was some concern this incident with the water gel gun was connected to the basketball game, but the motive of the students firing the water gel gun is unknown.
Bertrang believes this was an unrelated incident. He described it as “four individuals making a really poor decision.”
Bertrang believed the water gel gun incident might be connected to a recent social media trend on TikTok. Several police departments nationwide have released statements on the trend which features videos of people using gel blaster guns on pedestrians or property.
Regardless of the reasons these four New Ulm students fired on St. Peter’s bus, the incident is another black mark on the district.
Bertrang said in a letter addressing the community, that even though the gel gun incident did not occur on school grounds it was extremely troubling.
The New Ulm School Board also released a statement on the incident:
“New Ulm Public Schools does not support any act of aggression, disrespect, or intolerance towards any one person or community. What has occurred during and after recent games with St. Peter is horrible and not acceptable for our students and our community. Our school administration will spend time in the next week meeting with students to review our policies around bullying, intolerance and hate. All students need to understand this is unacceptable behavior.
“As a board, we apologize to our community, the St. Peter community and the St. Peter Basketball team for what has occurred in the past month. As a board, we will continue our work on equity, inclusion and diversity to make sure that all students matter, regardless of the community in which they live.”
