The Seattle Thunderbirds of the Western Hockey League released two players after running for the team’s singles player Black.
The junior hockey team announced that two players, ages 17 and 18, were suspended over the weekend of March 19 after their first two matches, as team officials investigated complaints of racial harassment against teammates Had.
The Seattle Times reports that a player waved a banana at the victim and called the victim a racial slave.
Two nights before the start of their season the team was informed of the incident by a team employee and the team sent both the players home.
Thunderbirds general manager Bill La Forge released a statement on the racist incident:
In the week leading up to the Seattle Thunderbirds’ 2020-21 season, reports of two players in the team’s locker room communicating inappropriate racial comments and actions towards a third player were exposed. We conducted an in-depth investigation of this learning event by conducting interviews with team and staff. The Seattle Thunderbirds have a zero-tolerance policy for comments and actions that are racially insensitive or bullying. …
Effectively both players are no longer in the T-Bird roster. The two players removed from the roster will continue their education and personal development in the region. We will use this phenomenon to emphasize that comments of this nature will not be tolerated and further emphasize educational programming in this area.
With the trade deadline passing on the 2020-21 WHL season, neither player will be able to move, and according to the Times, neither player is expected to return next season.
The WHL is one of three leagues to form the Canadian Hockey League with the highest level of junior hockey in Canada.
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