Message from NUSD on alleged SMHS football racism issue

(Editor’s note: This is a letter from the NUSD superintendent on the NUSD website.)

Good morning NUSD Colleagues and Community,

There has been a lot of coverage in the IJ, Chronicle, and now on the local news about SMHS football and the response by the district to the allegations of racial name calling. There is an investigation still occurring and the district will not discuss the case until all accusations are investigated and a full report summary provided.

Unfortunately, the Channel 2 News, accurately reported that there was a SMHS investigation occurring, but showed clips of NHS campus, logo, and the football team on the field. Novato High School nor its football team should have been part of the news cast as they are not involved at all in any aspect of the story. I spoke with the Channel 2 Newsroom this morning at 7:15am and they removed all photos or visual references to Novato High School and profusely apologized to the error they made.

We will be watching the news today to ensure NHS was removed from the news clip photos. If they are not removed as agreed to this morning, I will take further action.

I appreciate those of you that alerted me to the news clip this morning so it could be corrected and avoid further damage to NHS who is not involved in the investigation nor allegations in any way. The media can often create unnecessary angst due to misinformation and unsupervised work. This was one of those cases and we want to make sure everyone knows that NHS is not involved in any way with these accusations or investigation regarding football.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you see any further misinformation regarding any news media. It is too damaging to ignore.

Thanks for any help you will provide.

Jan La Torre-Derby

Superintendent