Texas Students Face Discipline After ‘Build a Wall’ Volleyball Chant
Students from a mostly-white north Texas high school are being disciplined after allegedly chanting “build a wall” at students from a mostly-Hispanic border school. The comments came during a regional playoff volleyball tournament.
A group of students from Archer City High School, a school that is located about 25 miles south of Wichita Falls, Texas, allegedly chanted “build a wall” while holding Trump-Pence signs. Archer City High School is comprised of about 83 percent white students. The chants were directed at students from Fort Hancock High School, a school located along the Texas/Mexico border east of El Paso. That school is said to be 97 percent Hispanic, the San Antonio Express-Newsreported.
Students from the mostly-Hispanic school were offended by what they believed were racially motivated chants to “build a wall,” a reference to President-Elect Donald Trump’s pledge to secure the U.S.-Mexico border.
The incident occurred on Friday night during the Class 2A regional match held in the west Texas community of Snyder.
Carlos Urias, a Van Horn, Texas, resident, posted a photo (shown above) that showed a group students from Archer City High School holding up a Trump-Pence sign and waving the Texas and Gonzales flags. The Gonzales flag is a Texas historical flag from the state’s war of independence from Mexico. It is referred to as the “Come and Take It” flag.
Urias stated the chants were directed at the Fort Hancock “Lady Stangs” volleyball team and their supporters. “No doubt in my mind that this sentiment has always existed with groups of people but to display it so openly is so not correct!” he posted on Facebook. “I guess it makes it easier to treat others in this manner being that this sentiment was modeled verbally during the course of the presidential campaign.”
Archer City High School Superintendent CD Knobloch learned about the incident from Urias’ Facebook post.
“Comments such as this are not representative of our school and community,” Knobloch told the San Antonio newspaper. “This type of comment is extremely unacceptable and will not be tolerated.” He said he has been in contact with Fort Hancock ISD Superintendent Jose Franco to make sure nothing else like this happens.
Knobloch said his students will be disciplined but could not provide details citing privacy issues. The Fort Worth Star-Telegramreported that Knobloch believed the comments were not racially motivated.
“In my opinion it is stemming from the presidential election,” Knoblock told the Fort Worth newspaper. “If we hadn’t had that election last week, this wouldn’t have happened. Our students are not racists. It’s as simple as that.” He reiterated that the comments were a result of the emotionally-heated days following the election of Donald Trump.
Superintendent Franco seemed more upset that no one appeared to step forward to stop the student’s behavior.
“I guess what bothered me most was no adults, no officials did anything about it while the match was going on,” Franco said. “We come from a very competitive district where’s there’s plenty of trash talk and that’s just part of the game, having fun with it, but this is the first time it has ever crossed the line.”
Franco pointed out the irony of the Trump-Pence rhetoric being used against his community. “Little did they know that Hudspeth County where we live went for Trump,” Franco said. In fact, he said, his community already has a border barrier, but it only goes two miles in each direction from Fort Hancock and just stops.
“We have a wall’ he told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “It looks like something out of Jurassic Park. It goes two miles each way from the port of entry and then it ends in nothing.”
Breitbart Texas reported that Hudspeth County is one of six border counties carried by President-Elect Trump in the November 8 election.
Superintendent Knobloch apologized for the conduct of the students. “We’re sorry this happened,” he said. “The whole community is torn up about it.”
The Archer City “Lady Cats” won the match, three games to zero, and are now participating in the state tournament. On Wednesday night, the Lady Cats defeated Thrall High School in three straight sets and will proceed to the state finals for their second time in three years, TexomasHomepage.com reported.
Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior political news contributor for Breitbart Texas. He is a founding member of the Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX.