CORONADO, Calif. — Protestors marched near Coronado High School on Saturday. They say they’re dissatisfied with the Coronado Superintendent’s response to the tortilla-throwing incident at last week’s championship basketball game against Orange Glen.
The superintendent said after reviewing footage and talking to witnesses, the district will not require Coronado High to forfeit the championship game they won last weekend. He said both teams were out of line but the protestors Saturday said they wanted to send a strong message: enough is enough.
“They’re going to need to do more. Their head coach cannot be a sacrificial lamb,” said Tasha Williamson, a local social justice activist.
Protesters gathered outside of Coronado High School on Saturday to express their concerns and frustrations with the tortilla-throwing incident that has caught national attention.
“They have a history of racism here. When our kids from Lincoln and other areas from south of the 8 came here, they would chant with their parents and their students, ‘Here comes the prison bus’. This was in the early 2000s,” Williamson said.
Last Saturday night, tortillas were thrown towards a mainly-Latino Orange Glen basketball team after Coronado won the championship game. On Thursday, the Escondido Union High School District board, passed a resolution denouncing racism and racial discrimination. Now some activists say they want Coronado and its school district to do more.
“Racism should be called out by everybody, everywhere, anytime it shows up,” Williamson said.
Senator Ben Hueso from Chula Vista is also calling on the California Interscholastic Federation to revoke Coronado’s regional basketball championship in response to the incident. The CIF announced that it won’t make a final decision until they’ve gathered all the information from each school district.
“I think that the students should be held accountable, but a lot of the eyes need to go to the parents and the staffing. Racism starts at home, just like love does. So that’s where we can begin,” said Amanda with We Stand United.
San Diego County’s Human Relations Commission is also holding a special virtual meeting Monday, June 28 at 5 p.m. to get the public’s feedback on the incident.
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