Parents and officials in a ritzy New York suburb denied reports that spectators at a high school girls basketball game hurled racial slurs at opposing players — even as another student backed the claims.
The Scarsdale school district has already wrapped up its investigation into allegations that racist comments were flung at East Ramapo players during a Feb. 10 game — and found no evidence that the incident ever happened, according to a districtwide email obtained by The Post from Scarsdale superintendent Dr. Drew Patrick.
“Our commitment to belonging and a safe, supportive environment for all students — free from discrimination, intimidation, harassment, and bullying — compels us to investigate all such reports,“ Patrick wrote. “I’m happy to report that our investigation did not corroborate that there were any such comments made.”
The superintendent then blamed the media for “decid[ing] to report this incident as if it has been confirmed and verified as having occurred — a factually baseless and untrue assertion.”
Despite the superintendent’s statement, another East Ramapo player reportedly said she heard the racist comments from the floor.
“I don’t know where it came from,” 17-year-old Emmalee Rodriguez told the newspaper the Journal News, referring to the slurs.
But the senior at Spring Valley High School said she thinks the comments came from the stands — and added that she was “very surprised” Scarsdale announced its findings when East Ramapo was still looking into it, the outlet said.
“They are just going to conclude something without waiting for the other side to conclude their investigation,” Rodriguez asked. “They are just going to shove it under a mat and pretend it didn’t happen?”
Both districts moved to investigate the claims after the game, during which sophomore Ramapo player Dejane Buckley reportedly said she heard the crowd calling them “Black N-words.”
Her coach realized what was happening, then called a timeout to address it, Buckley told the Journal News. Then the team forfeited, because they “didn’t want to continue to play in that kind of environment,” she said.
But the slurs poured in again as they walked off the court with about four minutes left to play, she claimed.
Athletic directors from both districts promised they’d look into the reports, according to the paper.
“Unfortunately, the game ended, the East Ramapo players left Scarsdale feeling dejected and disrespected, and a day intended to bring communities together for a common purpose was tainted,” read a statement, issued by director Ray Pappalardi from Scarsdale and Greg Russo from East Ramapo.
“So far, this review has not identified a specific individual or group who engaged in any inappropriate conduct,” the statement continued. “Despite the absence of specific information, we view any act against the dignity of any student-athlete as unacceptable.
Russo told The Post that the Ramapo district’s investigation is ongoing.
“The outcome of the probe will be shared once all student-athletes have been interviewed,” Russo said in a statement.
One parent said the accusations are totally false — there were only about 15 people in the stands, he said, and none of them made any racist comments to anybody on the court.
“There was no incident,” Jason Paris, father of a junior player at Scarsdale, told The Post on Wednesday. “It wasn’t until this got coverage that anybody was even aware that anything was being alleged.”
Paris said the East Ramapo coach pulled his team off the floor after the refs called a pair of hard fouls on his players.
“The East Ramapo coach began berating the ref, and yelling at him about unfairness of calls,” Paris said. “He continued yelling at the refs until the refs whistled the game over.”
Paris said he has no idea why the student-athletes have made their claims — the gym is so small he would have heard anything inappropriate, he said.
“If I had heard anything like that, I myself would have gotten involved and brought it to the attention of the school administration members who were present to get that person removed from the gym,” Paris said. “Nothing like that was said.”
Still, the sour conclusion to an otherwise fun season has left the Scarsdale players feeling bummed out, he added.
“They’re upset,” he said.
“All the kids at school think that something happened, because that’s what they saw on the news and read and read online,” he continued. “And you know, it kind of put a black mark on the season for them.”
