SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — The start of the 2024 high school football season is just days away but one of the more storied programs in Arizona is enduring a football fallout. A half-dozen players are suing Scottsdale Unified School District, saying they were facing retaliation for wanting to transfer schools after the principal's wrote out a racial slur in an email.
The federal lawsuit, filed last week, alleges that the district has fought these students' abilities to transfer schools to play football somewhere else after Saguaro High School Principal Anne Achtzeiger sent an email to the team's coaches last December where she used the n-word.
She said the word was what she was hearing from the music played by various football players near the school's weight room, which she said was disrupting classes happening nearby. In her email, she wrote out the word to clarify that it was prohibited on campus.
In her email she wrote, "one of our classes on campus was disrupted and forced to relocate due to inappropriate music interrupting their students’ presentations that were being video recorded.”
She later sent the following email to the Saguaro football community apologizing for writing out the word.
The lawsuit says says seven players were "fast-tracked" by the Arizona Interscholastic Association (AIA), but six students had to appeal their denials by the AIA.
The catch, according to the families of these students, is all 13 students cited the same reason for wanting to transfer: The principal's email that was sent to Saguaro's coaches.
“This hurt him. It hurt all of his buddies, and it just created this toxic environment at the school to where they didn't even want to go to class," Shellie Rinaldi said.
The families allege the retaliation from the district came when Matt Harris, Saguaro's Athletic Director, vowed to fight each student's ability to transfer to a new school. The lawsuit says Harris sent a text message saying "If they want to leave, we will fight them."
For a hardship appeal to be granted, the AIA by-laws state that the transfer request cannot be athletically motivated. Each family must prove that "An unforeseeable, unavoidable, and uncorrectable act, condition, or event, over which the student and his/her family has no control."
They also must prove that the hardship created a "severe burden" for the student, the AIA by-laws say.
“It feels like you're on trial. It feels like our kids are on trial for a crime they didn’t commit," Montriece Baker said.
Tuesday, all six families gathered at the AIA headquarters for their appeal hearings. Inside, they presented their reasons for wanting to leave the Saguaro football program. They say a decision from the AIA appeals committee is expected on Wednesday.
"Let these boys move on and accept that what happened was wrong and that something should have been done. She should have been fired, an apology doesn't get it," Rinaldi said.
These players departures comes after their former coach, Zak Hill, left the program and took a job in the NFL with the Seattle Seahawks.
Scottsdale Unified School District issued the following statement denying the allegations in the lawsuit:
Scottsdale Unified School District is aware of the allegations and lawsuit being filed. We take all concerns regarding our staff and students seriously.
While we cannot comment on ongoing litigation, we want to acknowledge that in December 2023 on one of our campuses, music with inappropriate and offensive language was overheard, disrupting teaching and learning for a nearby class. The principal sent an email to the football coaches who oversaw the students playing the music in the school weight room and detailed some of the lyrics which included racist and vulgar words. The principal acknowledged that including those words, even in context, may have caused some offense and apologized both in person and in email to those affected by this incident.
SUSD is committed to fostering an inclusive and respectful environment for all students, staff and community members. We will continue to focus on ensuring our educational environments are safe and supportive, where all can learn without disruption or offense.
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