St. Patrick, Philadelphia handling racial controversy in house

A racial controversy surrounding the Philadelphia-St. Patrick softball playoff series is being resolved by administration at both schools, Mississippi High School Activities Association executive director Don Hinton said Wednesday.

Philadelphia supporters made allegations of racial taunts by St. Patrick following a pair of playoff games on May 7 at the Biloxi Catholic school, but Hinton said that a probe of the matter didn’t reveal anything worthy of MHSAA penalties.

“We worked real closely with both of our schools’ administrations,” Hinton said. “As far as both schools are concerned, they’ve dealt with the students involved. There were also some things with Philadelphia where, during the course of the contest, some things were said and there were signs in dugouts. We’d like to try to work through those things through administration. As far as a penalty, we have not done that. School administration can deal with the students.”

Philadelphia won the series, 2-1, to advance to the Class 3A state title series.

An image of a St. Patrick player wearing a gorilla mask during a game on May 7 made its way around social media, sparking an uproar. Multiple players in the St. Patrick dugout wore masks during the game.

Hinton said the masks were an example of the team imitating the LSU softball team, which wears a variety of masks in the dugout during games.

“When you get deep down into it, there wasn’t any kind of malice,” Hinton said. “There was a particular mask worn by a young girl. We didn’t feel like there was an issue. The intention wasn’t what social media made it out to be. I’m not saying it doesn’t happen. In this particular case, it didn’t. They had done that before and they were copying that LSU stuff.

“It’s unfortunate when young students do some things. That’s why we should have adults right there to make sure that type of thing doesn’t happen.”

St. Patrick principal Matt Buckley said Wednesday some of his students were punished for their conduct on social media during the fallout of the allegations.

“We did our investigation and found that allegations of racial comments said at the game were false,” Buckley said. “We did find that some students posted on social media after the game and that was addressed as part of our school policy.

“We have a social media policy that addresses anything that disrupts the environment of the school.”

Philadelphia has knocked St. Patrick out of the playoffs in each of the last two seasons, helping create an intense rivalry between the two schools.

The Philadelphia team drew the ire of St. Patrick fans when they displayed a sign that said “Beat the Catholics.” The sign was on the team bus in 2015 and in the Philadelphia dugout to start the playoff series in May.

Philadelphia Schools Superintendent Lisa Hull was not immediately available for comment on Wednesday.

This story was originally published June 29, 2016 at 1:18 PM with the headline "St. Patrick, Philadelphia handling racial controversy in house."