Yonkers high school basketball coach, player dismissed after antisemitic incident at game

The head of a girls high school basketball team and one of its players were fired after opponents of the team they were playing against resorted to antisemitic slurs in a game last week in New York as announced by the school system and the mayor of Yonkers. 
 
Still, officials reported that the investigation of the shooting is ongoing; other people who may have been complicit may be punished. 
 
It was played Thursday involving the girls’ varsity teams of The Leffell School, a private Jewish school in Hartsdale, and Roosevelt High School Early College Studies by the Yonkers district. 
 
In the third quarter, some of the members of The Leffell School team was escaped what the Leffell player Robin Bosworth defined in op-ed column of her online school newspaper, The Lion’s Roar as “the other team’s physical manner of playing. ” 
 
Bosworth added that her team chose to bring the game to premature conclusion in the third quarter. 
 
Thus Bosworth launched that opponents called ‘antisemitic slurs and curses at us. ’ 
 
“Boycotting a team due to association with a particular school is wrong in all ways but to do so due to the current war in Israel and the increase in antisemitism globally it made it very personal to me and many of my team mates,” Bosworth wrote. 
 
Authorities insist that hate speech will not be allowed. 
 
Yonkers Public Schools Interim Superintendent Luis Rodriguez and Mayor Mike Spano on Sunday released a statement in response to the incident. 
 
Yonkers Public Schools and City of Yonkers’ officials have offered Their condolences to the students and the community of The Leffell School of the comment made to the women’s basketball team of the School during their recent game against Roosevelt High School- Early College Studies. 

In unison, we condemn, and will never accept hate speech from students and the community we serve. The antisemitic words supposedly uttered against the learner-athlete of The Leffell School are agencies, improper and incongruent with positive youth development. 
 
Yonkers Public Schools have stated that a lot of investigative actions including those involving game officials, coaches, students and school official from The Leffell School were carried out. 
 
Final decision regarding the dismissal of the Roosevelt basketball team’s coach and certain player was made after going through the videos of the game and having a word with any other person who had a chance to see the incident was conducted by Yonkers Public Schools. ”The investigation is still progressing, should the District find that other students also participated in the incident then the school District will then take additional measures as necessary. ” 
 
They mentioned in the joint statement, “While Yonkers Public Schools, Mayor Spano will address the religious, educational and community leaders, additional and guided counselling and training will be implemented amongst the school members so as to avoid this in future. 
 
For his part, schools in question have not responded and neither has the department of education to whom CNN sought comments regarding the matter. 
 
Neither has the coach nor the player been named by officials. 
 
Several days ago I interviewed one Roosevelt basketball player and she claimed she still does not comprehend why the coach was fired. 
 
The shooting guard as well as another of his teammates agreed that the players of the two teams were heard exchanging words, but, according to her, no cursing or any abusive language was used. 
 
Current relations between Yonkers Public Schools and The Leffell School are being reconciled, says Akeem, the spokesperson of Yonkers Public Schools. 
 
However, the head of school Leffell said the principal and athletic director of Roosevelt made apologies for what took place on the court and the possibility of meeting between the Leaderships of the two schools and even students if not the players was welcome. 
 
The county executive also has a plan, which is also quite in line with the aforementioned recommendations. 
 
“We are running a program through our Human Rights Commission and the Westchester County youth bureau which will at least start the conversation and help inculcate some understand and discussion,” said George Latimer, the County Executive of Westchester Country. 
 
Bosworth wrote in her op-ed ‘I have played a sport every athletic season throughout my high school career and I have never heard this kind of hatred targeted at one of my teams. ‘ 
 
“If a team disrespects my team and, more importantly our school community’s standards, it should not be allowed or wiped off the slate after the game. ” 
 
New York Governor Kathy Hochul on Saturday reposted a news article about the incident on x, formerly Twitter. “A high school basketball game. This cannot be who we are as New Yorkers. No one should ever be subjected to antisemitism or any kind of hate,” Hochul said.