September 24, 2019
Dear Arundel High Families:
As you are undoubtedly aware from social media and newspaper coverage, one of our players reported
that he was called by a racial slur by a Severna Park High School football player during our school’s game
against Severna Park on September 13. I have previously addressed this issue with our football team and
with the parents of our football players, but given the breadth of discussion about this issue, I want you all
to have accurate and up-to-date information.
First and foremost, we take incredibly seriously the responsibility we all have to eradicate hate and bigotry
not just from our school, but from our communities. That is one of the primary reasons we created the
Global Community Citizenship course two years ago. That course, I am proud to say, is now a graduation
requirement for high school students, beginning with this year’s ninth-graders.
Any time we receive an allegation of a behavior that violates our Code of Student Conduct, we investigate
the matter thoroughly. In this case, we became aware of this incident after the game had concluded, and
both our school and Severna Park High School conducted investigations. Police also conducted an
independent investigation. Those investigations included interviews with players, coaches, and others who
were in the area of the field that night.
At this time, neither our school, Severna Park High School, nor police have been able to find any
additional witnesses who could identify a specific person who uttered the slur. If you or anyone you know
has further information which would be helpful in this matter, please contact our school.
It is vitally important that students who feel they have been victimized in some way report such incidents
to an adult at our school as soon as possible. Immediate reporting will allow us to launch our investigation
more quickly and conduct interviews when the matter at hand is still fresh.
With regard to this matter, I want to emphatically state that the use of racial slurs is not acceptable in any
setting. We do not tolerate them in our school, and we should not ever tolerate them in our communities.
As I said to our football players, I am proud of the way they have rallied around the player who reported
this matter, and am equally proud of the way in which our student-athletes carry themselves.
In addition to peer support, our school has counselors available at any time to speak with any student who
has a need to do so. Please encourage your child to seek out those resources if necessary.
Sincerely,

Gina Davenport
Principal
GD/bm