Photo courtesy of Black Enterprise
A star student-athlete has taken his talents to public school after facing multiple incidents of racism at New Rochelle Prep School in New York City.
According to WPIX-11, Tony Humphrey, 16, is a Cortlandt, New York resident and a skilled baseball player who attended Iona Preparatory School in New Rochelle — a junior who’s already been recruited and plans to attend Boston College after he graduates.
Humphrey aspired to become a better athlete by joining the school’s track team. However, on Friday, he was blind-sighted by one of the team’s assistant athletic director’s treatment toward him.
“He comes up to me,” Humphrey said of the administrator, “and asked why was I doing track.”
Humphrey said he explained that his main focus was to increase his speed and become faster.
“It never hurts to gain speed,” he said. Additionally, the administrator insinuated that Humphrey was already fast enough and had no reason to join the track team.
The 16-year-old said the assistant AD said the teen “gained that speed by running from the police.”
“That was racist. There was no reason for him to say that,” he said.
After facing the racist incident, Humphrey informed his mother what had happened, and she decided to transfer the 16-year-old out of the prep school and enroll him into public school, WPIX-11 reported.
“I decided to leave because of my current situation, as I’m already committed. I’m already going to [college],” he said. “I don’t feel like I have to stay at a program where they’re going to look at me different or feel uncomfortable at a place I have to go to Monday through Friday.
Humphrey said this was not the first time he experienced racism at Iona Prep.
“There were other instances of racism during my freshman year,” he said. “I took it up with the dean, I took it up with the higher-ups, and nothing happened to the other student.”
On Tuesday, students staged a walkout to support their teammate and classmate and expressed how they felt about the director’s actions, per WPIX-11.
The school sent out a letter to parents to inform them of the incident and announced an internal investigation on Tuesday.
The letter reads in part, “Such comments go against the very mission of the school to develop moral and ethical leaders. It is behavior that Iona Preparatory does not condone for its students and will not accept from its faculty and staff.”
The school also announced in the letter that the staff member in question had resigned.