Friday, November 17, 2006
IA Players called
"
The ANNOTICO Report
It seems like a Never ending
Rain of Anti Italian Bigotry.
This time, North Hunterdon
County High School Lacrosse Coach Robert
Donnelly has been accused of slurring Italian American athletes on at least two
different occasions.
(1) 15-year-old player Evan
Ferrier said he asked Robert Donnelly, the
school's head lacrosse coach, how he could improve and earn more playing
time. Donnelly-- answered, "Well, maybe if you didn't wear a
headband and slick your hair back like a guinea, we'd play you more."
(2) Ferrier and another player, Nicholas
Dignazio, 15, also said Donnelly had on previous occasions made snide comments
comparing Italian-American players to the "Gotti boys," a reference
to John Gotti, don of the New York Gambino crime family.
North Hunterdon Principal Mike Hughes and Athletic Director John Deutsch said they
investigated the students' claims, but declined to comment on the outcome of
their probe. They refused to say whether
the coach had been disciplined, citing school district policy on personnel
matters. Donnelly, who teaches physical education at the school, did not return
phone calls seeking comment.
Anti-Bias Group Confronts
School on Coach
Allegations of anti-Italian comments draws UNICO's attention
By
Claire Heininger
Thursday,
November 16, 2006
An
Italian-American activist group that has often protested "The
Sopranos" over stereotypes and once pressed Gov. Jon Corzine over
insensitive ethnic remarks is now focusing its scrutiny on a
Upset by
allegations of anti-Italian comments made by an
If this was about
African-Americans, or Jews, the whole thing would have exploded," said
Manny Alfano, chairman of UNICO's anti-bias committee. "We want to
investigate what's really going on here, (and) stamp out a little fire before
it becomes a big one."
The allegations
surfaced after a sophomore football game in late October, when 15-year-old
player Evan Ferrier said he approached three
One of the
coaches -- Robert Donnelly, also the school's head lacrosse coach -- answered,
"Well, maybe if you didn't wear a headband and slick your hair back like a
guinea, we'd play you more," Evan said Tuesday.
The player
immediately quit the team and said he soon recounted the conversation to his
father, who contacted UNICO and the school. After conducting an investigation,
"You have to
say my kid's a liar," said Ferrier, of
Evan Ferrier and
another North Hunterdon player, Nicholas Dignazio, 15, of
"In this day
and age, if you call somebody a guinea, how sick are these coaches?" said
Nicholas' father, Vincent Dignazio, whose son was kicked off the team in early
November amid a dispute over missed practices. "Coaches should be role
models, and instead they make the children not want to talk to them."
"You can
doubt kids, you can doubt staff, but we did an investigation and we go on the
facts,"Athletic Director John Deutsch said. "If its
racial or not, we do a full investigation. Every single one we take
seriously."
He and North
Hunterdon Principal Mike Hughes refused to say whether the coach had been
disciplined, citing school district policy on personnel matters. Donnelly, who
teaches physical education at the school, did not return phone calls seeking
comment.
But after two UNICO representatives attended Tuesday
night's meeting of the North Hunterdon-Voorhees school board -- seeking school
officials' version of events and suggesting the district adopt sensitivity
training --
"I don't
want to imply guilt ... (but) it's been brought to our attention, and we're
going to do something about it," the principal said yesterday.
"Civilized people don't talk like that, don't
address each other like that. ... We don't act like that at
Hughes said he'd
be willing to meet with UNICO representatives, a move the organization
requested Tuesday night.
"We want to
nip it in the bud," UNICO board member Gene Antonio said. "You don't
want to see kids getting hurt."
The
Fairfield-based group -- the nation's largest Italian-American service
organization -- has fought larger anti-bias battles in
Its
demonstrations against the hit HBO series have drawn both positive and negative
attention, and Alfano publicized jokes Corzine made during his 2000 senatorial
campaign that eventually led the now-governor to apologize. Alfano said a
coach's alleged comments warrant UNICO's attention because teenagers shouldn't
be exposed to already widespread Italian-American stereotypes.
"When it
comes to (Italians), we're a different ballgame," Alfano said. "Maybe
the 16-year-olds are trying to act like the Gotti boys, I don't know, but
you're the teacher, you're the coach, you should try to change that
image."
Claire Heininger
works in the
The
ANNOTICO Reports
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