A friend of mine reminds me from time to time that a community raises itself. I think he means that in a very literal sense that we reap what we sow, and if the Riley vs Penn boys’ basketball sectional game broadcast on Friday, March 6, 2026, is any indication, the harvest from our current crops is going to be very weak indeed.
A student broadcaster at Penn High School used the “N” word to refer to a Riley basketball player.
According to WNDU, Penn High School principal Rachel Fry issued a statement, which WNDU posted here. Fry starts off her milquetoast missive with “Dear Penn High School Community,” which is not unexpected from the insular educational behemoth, but also terribly sad. Why is this statement not addressed to our whole community? Why does the statement not quickly condemn the hate speech that occurred? Why does the apology to Riley administrators only come at the end of the statement? Where is the apology to the players and their families? Where is the apology recognizing the larger harm done to our entire community when hate speech rears its derisive and insidious head?
I’m afraid those who know Indiana’s history know the answers to these questions all too well. Just a century ago, Indiana had more than 250,000 registered members of the Ku Klux Klan. We live with that horrible history, and we walk beside those who carry pieces of that legacy in their hearts and minds. Detractors will say that the 1920s Klan was more about anti-Nativism and all that entailed, and while that is correct, the core message of that Klan was that they would work to ensure ‘the othering’ of people that they did not feel were purely like them.
This does not mean that all people who look a particular way carry hate speech on the tips of their tongues in the modern era. However, the incident does show how emboldened some in our society have become to publicly again give voice to words that were responsible for systematic oppression, dehumanizing others, and murders.
We are at a moral crossroads with this incident and have an opportunity for a teachable moment. As a community, we can show that we’re serious about ending the speech of fascists and terrorists in our schools and elsewhere. Penn High School and its school board should voluntarily impose sanctions on themselves. A one-year ban from all athletics and competitions would seem harsh, but it would also show that our community has zero tolerance for this behavior and no room for this kind of nonsense. After all, the Indiana High School Athletic Association has policies on racialized behaviors. Penn Harris Madison (PHM) should go above and beyond the minimum as a school and self-sanction while spending a year addressing some of the core issues this incident brings to light. This would show the Penn Harris Madison School corporation to actually be the kind of educational leaders they portray themselves to be.
If PHM will not regulate themselves, then maybe all the schools that play them in Quiz Bowl, Track & Field, Chess, Robotics, and anything else should forfeit their games and matches with that corporation this entire year. It would show moxie and decency, teach our children in other schools that change often requires sacrifice, and show that we are all serious about not allowing this kind of hatred in our schools.
Some will argue that this was the act of one student. They will cry out about why other students who work so hard would be punished in this scenario. The reality is that, in an era of school choice, they don’t have to be at Penn; they’re welcome to use their voucher money to attend school and play sports elsewhere. However, maybe the lesson is that we are all part of the soup in which we swim and that for there to be real change, we all need to put some skin in the game, no matter what color that skin is, so that our children and grandchildren are still not living with Klansmen rhetoric so close to the tips of their tongues in another hundred years.
If a community raises itself, let’s ask the whole community to boycott playing Penn schools at every level and in all things if PHM does not choose to sanction itself.
Riley defeated Penn in the sectional game 58 – 47 to advance to the Sectional finals.
