Posted on 12/27/2018 10:30:35 AM PST by Bloody Sam Roberts
BUENA, N.J. -- A New Jersey school district says its wrestling team will no longer compete in events officiated by a referee who told a wrestler to lose his dreadlocks or forfeit his bout.
The announcement came during an emergency meeting held Wednesday with the Buena Regional school board and members of the community. The groups that assign referees have already said they wouldn't assign the ref until further notice.
Buena Regional High School wrestler Andrew Johnson had his dreadlocks cut minutes before his match on Dec. 19.
Johnson, who is black, had a cover over his hair, but referee Alan Maloney, who is white, said that wouldn't be sufficient. Maloney didn't respond to requests for comment.
WCAU-TV reports the high school's wrestling coach and athletic trainer discussed the incident with board members behind closed doors Wednesday.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
What difference does it make that the student is black? Why did the writer think it necessary to report that?
Second, I've wrestled in a number of tournaments in my High School days...many decades ago...and those are the rules. They always have been. We were required to be clean shaven, hair cut to a reasonable length at the ears and nails freshly clipped. Don't like it? You'll be disqualified at the discretion of the REFEREE.
I was in a sectional tournament one time and was the number 3 seed in my weight class. The number 2 seed (who I'd beaten in 27 seconds during the season) had long, Fabio-like hair. He was instructed to cut it. He refused and was disqualified. I was moved up to number 2 seed and wrestled the number 1 seed in the finals. And he kicked my ass...but I went the distance.
For the coach to deny the rules and have the whole team and the whole school pitch a hissy fit over this is disgusting.
That's the fantasy-land that many Americans and public school bureaucrats live in. We are all victims, we are all heroes, we are all brave social-justice warriors battling a deadly system of oppression.
Have you been following this story?
The kids dreds weren’t that long, maybe 4-5 inches, and not drooping down....................
I wrestled 7th 8th 9th and was good at that age. Broke 2 kids arms. There’s a reason for the hair, jewelry, and other rules. Hair can be pulled and a cap can also become a weapon if grabbed the right way.
I made them rinse the sulfa8 out of their hair.
The ref was right as he was enforcing the rules of the game. The kids that engage in the sport are fully aware of the rules, but this kid chose to to be different.
No. I just saw the latest as posted...searched here and found nothing posted.
Notice the words: “, who is white, “ and “, who is black,” with the commas in the right places. And so the division continues. ALL Whites are assumed to be evil racists.
Suppose there were an accident and they reported that a Mazda and a Toyota collided, and they included the words:
“The Mazda, which is white,” and “The Toyota, which is black,” the reader would wonder what the implication was.
With the people, the implication is that ALL Whites are racists and ALL Blacks are victims.
Damn the reporter for continuing the racism.
The arm pit state called NJ now allows FEMALE wrestlers. Will they have to cut their hair?
It's like short hair in the military: there's a reason behind the rule.
This is only going to make it harder for other black players to be accepted by future teams. I know this is just High School, but it’s competing on a national level. What coach is going to want the potential headache of hypersensitive black parents who frame every negative experience as being ‘racist’?
The kid is learning the wrong lessons from this.
Learning to weaponize his presumed victimhood.
The school or wrestling organization is learning the wrong lessons from this, always ready to take on the burden of implied guilt because of race. This sets us all back 50 years.
Anything bad that happens to anyone wearing dread locks is to be welcomed.
True in the late 70s, early 80s when I wrestled in CO.
Coach carried scissors and a razor.
I dont get this, I mean, I saw the video, and yeah it was sad, but I withheld judgement. What are the ACTUAL RULES that they wrestled under?
Youth wrestling coach and ref here... hair long enough to be grabbed from behind and used for leverage or which affects the proper fit of head gear will be covered using an authorized hair restraint (skull cap or cover).
Adidas sells a pretty awesome design...
This rule gets more lax the older the kids get, but if a girl or boy came on my mat with long hair, they would be told to cover it, especially if it affected the fit of their head gear.
Spot on.
I wondered, too, what are the rules in NJ. My kid wrestled against Sikh kids who had caps or something. There were also girls that wrestled. Here the kid with the dreds could have done something like that.
Females have been wrestling for a long time. No, they don’t have to cut their hair, but hey do have to wear covers or ear their hair in tight braids next to the skull (cornrows). As they get older the rules become a little more lax and some don’t wear a cover at all. Some don’t even wear head gear.
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