Varsity football season forfeited after disturbing slave auction simulation

YUBA CITY, Calif. (CNN/KCRA) – A high school football team in California has forfeited the rest of the season after several players were suspended for a disturbing prank.

Video shows members of the River Valley High School varsity football team taking part in a simulation of a slave auction of three of their Black teammates.

School officials in the Yuba City Unified School District obtained the video, described as a “slave sale,” last week and barred the students involved from competing.

CNN has not seen the video, but affiliate KCRA said it shows about a dozen students pointing and yelling dollar amounts at the Black students standing in their underwear against a wall.

The rest of the varsity football season will be forfeited since the team does not have enough players to continue.

“Re-enacting a slave sale as a prank tells us that we have a great deal of work to do with our students so they can distinguish between intent and impact,” school district superintendent Doreen Osumi said in a statement.

“They may have thought the skit was funny, but it is not; it is unacceptable and requires us to look honestly and deeply at issues of systemic racism.”

The school says the students involved violated a student-athlete code of conduct they all signed at the start of the year.

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