NewsCovering Kentucky

Actions

Alleged racial slurs said at middle school basketball game

Posted
and last updated

PARIS, Ky. (LEX 18) — School officials in Scott and Bourbon counties are investigating an alleged incident involving racial slurs at a middle school girls basketball game. Since the game, a Facebook post made by one alleged victim's parent sharing her daughter's experience has been shared several times.

"She said after we tussled for the ball, the jump ball, I got up, we both got up. And she said, you're not even that good anyways. You're better off picking cotton," Latonia Summers said.

That's the racially insensitive comment Latonia Summers is alleging a middle schooler on the Bourbon County girls basketball team told her daughter, who is on Georgetown Middle's team, during Monday night's game.

"Saying it now, instantly, it just sent chills, rage through my body. No child should have to experience that," Summers said.

Summers made the Facebook post after the game, which since has been shared several times.

Summers says she wasn't looking for sympathy, but to be a voice for her daughter.

"This was a prime definition of hate that I saw, a prime definition of agony, of pain, of hurt, that not only my daughter experienced but her teammates experienced," Summers said.

The Bourbon County Schools superintendent says they are saddened by the allegations and are investigating the incident. The superintendent says that disciplinary action will be taken against the students if the alleged incident is found to be true.

But is that enough? That's the question Summers is asking herself. "I think they should be definitely taken off the team, I think the coach should be fired. I feel like the coach should be held just as accountable as those players," Summers said.

Scott County Schools released a statement to LEX18:

"School leaders at Georgetown Middle School are in communications with leaders at Bourbon County Middle School, to ensure the allegations are taken seriously, investigated thoroughly and handled appropriately."

The Bourbon County Superintendent says the investigation into the allegations should be wrapped up in a couple of days.