Wilcox facing backlash over anti-gay slur
SANTA CLARA >> While Bay Area high school football teams were heading into late-season action Friday night, the Wilcox High Chargers did not suit up.
The South Bay powerhouse did not play because it had a scheduled “bye week” — not because of fallout over alleged homophobic slurs directed at a freshman male cheerleader by some members of the football team.
But Wilcox is facing some sort of discipline handed down the Santa Clara Unified School District. The details of that discipline were not revealed by the district nor by Wilcox principal Kristin Gonzalez.
“From a disciplinary standpoint, the school has taken the actions available given the facts of the case, which range from removal from athletics to suspension from school,” Gonzalez wrote in a seven-paragraph announce
ment released to this news organization Thursday night.
It remains unclear whether Wilcox could forfeit its final regular-season games before the playoffs begin or whether the season could be canceled entirely. Wilcox coach Paul Rosa has declined to comment.
Meanwhile, authorities hope to conclude a criminal investigation early next week, Santa Clara Police Department Capt. Wahid Kazem said Friday.
“We have spoken with a lot of the parties involved and documented the incident,” Kazem said, adding that investigators want to have the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s office review the case before deciding how to proceed.
“This is a sensitive case where we’re very aware of the community’s feelings,” Kazem said. “We want to make sure with regards to the criminal aspect that we do a thorough investigation.”
As of Friday, a change.org petition in support of the cheerleader had almost 8,000 signatures.
“As our community begins moving forward from what has been a very painful week, I want to connect with you because I feel that it is critical that we begin the healing process,” Gonzalez said in her letter to the community. “As difficult as this week has been, there is also an opportunity for our school community to come together in order to work to create an environment that will ensure that every single student at Wilcox feels welcomed and embraced.”
Chris Anderson, a Monterey County youth coach whose one son is a cheerleader while another is an all-state football player, said the public deserves to know what the penalties are.
“We don’t need to know names,” he said in a tweet to a reporter. But
“We DEMAND some form of explanation.”
The situation began last Friday during a pep rally for the Chargers’ football game that night at home against Milpitas High School. The father of the alleged victim told this news organization that some members of the football team directed anti-gay remarks at his son, who is 14.
The father said the harassment continued that night during the football game.
The boys’ cheer teammates protested the behavior, the father said, by refusing to hold up banners that the team traditionally runs through to re-enter the field after the halftime break. The father said his daughter, a former Wilcox cheerleader, took her brother home at halftime because she was worried about his safety.
This news organization is not identifying the alleged victim and his family because he is a minor.
“It will be a teachable moment at Wilcox High School, there is no question in my mind,” said Hank Roberts, a former Santa Clara High coach who now coaches linemen at a high school in Sparks, Nevada.
The situation at Wilcox has left Chargers athletics booster club president Marc Lund disappointed.
“I would have thought the way things have been going in the world nowadays, the kids would have been enlightened,” said Lund, who doesn’t have a son on the team.
Wilcox’s football team is scheduled to resume action Nov. 1 with a game at crosstown rival Santa Clara before ending the regular season at home Nov. 8 against Sunnyvale-Fremont.
Wilcox (6-2 overall) is considered to be heavily favored to win both of those games as it heads into the Central Coast Section Division I playoffs that begin Nov. 15.
The Chargers, coming off a state championship last season, are 4-0 in the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League’s De Anza Division and ranked No. 8 in the Bay Area by this news organization.