Students barred from games after chants at female goalie

[Scorch]

Armstrong High School students chanted vulgarities at the Mars Area High School team's female goalie during an Oct. 28 game between the Armstrong River Hawks and Mars Fightin' Planets at the Armstrong team's Belmont Ice Arena near Kittanning, in western Pennsylvania. The chants from among a group of 50 to 60 students were captured on video posted to social media.

League Commissioner John Mucha called the students’ actions “disgusting” and “absolutely more than kids being kids.”

“The game should’ve been stopped until the behavior stopped or the fans were escorted out of the building,” Mucha said.

Meghan Duggan, Team USA Women’s Hockey Olympian, offered support to the Mars player in a tweet.

“Every time you take the ice, women and girls all over the hockey community are proud of YOU!," she said. “You represent so much more than the hateful words that were directed toward you."

Mars coach Steve Meyers said his goalie, who has started in all five of the team's games this season, was in tears after the second period. She and her family have declined to comment, and The Associated Press is not naming her in an effort to maintain her privacy and shield her from further abuse.

Armstrong's principal, Kirk Lorigan, said school officials were “appalled and embarrassed” and he was “disgusted” that parents and security guards did nothing to stop the chants. He apologized to the player, the team and the Mars community, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.

https://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireSt...oalie-81023012

[Scorch]

Clearly no videos are on the news site but it could easily be found on social media with some googling. Pretty disgusting stuff was chanted

It should be noted that the news reached the Penguins organization and they invited the Mars highschool team to play their next game at the Lemieux Sports Complex, their practice arena

[Cecil Terwilliger]

They chanted “She’s a whore” and “suck our dicks”. It wasn’t just a few bad apples. The chants are easily heard. Just as sickening is that no one in the arena reacted or seemed to care.

[zamler]

What is wrong with people.

[Phil Russell]

Rural Pennsylvania. That's what's wrong. Possibly my least favorite place on earth.

[kyuss275]

The parents that were in attendance should be barred also

[Samonadreau]

What the #### is wrong with people.

[Kipper_3434]

Gross, should been a brawl when this started

[TheScorpion]

Good. I watched the video and it was vile

[Sandman]

Pretty upsetting that people still think they can act like this, what with all the cameras out there, and cancel culture. Audacity, stupidity, entitlement. Disgusting.

[MoneyGuy]

I’m not a big guy but I would have gone over for a heart-to-heart with those morons. I did something similar another time.

[Aarongavey]

Originally Posted by Phil Russell

Rural Pennsylvania. That's what's wrong. Possibly my least favorite place on earth.

That is Bible Belt country, Biden only got 23% out there. Shocking that this knuckle dragging behaviour happened there of all places and that the adults did not say anything.

[#-3]

I should remind you that the vast majority of people on this board at one time ~17 years ago participated in or supported a group of 20,000 people chanting at a person was ugly to their face. Crowd mentalities are a hell of a drug, for the most part this was probably spurred by a few bad apples.

Glad they are doing what they can to make these girls feel supported, glad they are bringing the hammer down on these guys as hard as is reasonable. We need to cut down on the social acceptance of these things.

Yous all need to get off your horses a little bit .

[DeluxeMoustache]

Look, I think that if you are talking about Mike Ricci, he was a very successful pro player at that point, and it was something a lot less offensive than what this girl encountered.

Considering the context, are we moral grandstanding now based on false equivalency?

https://twitter.com/user/status/140826025796972544

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by #-3

I should remind you that the vast majority of people on this board at one time ~17 years ago participated in or supported a group of 20,000 people chanting at a person was ugly to their face. Crowd mentalities are a hell of a drug, for the most part this was probably spurred by a few bad apples.

Glad they are doing what they can to make these girls feel supported, glad they are bringing the hammer down on these guys as hard as is reasonable. We need to cut down on the social acceptance of these things.

Yous all need to get off your horses a little bit .

Chanting 'Ricci's ugly' to an adult male pro athlete, who embraced the fun, is NOTHING like this, come on.

[JJJ]

My daughter is a goalie so this kind of crap hits pretty hard. I feel for the girl in net. Whatever reason those kids had to chant that filth, they were wrong and I hope they learn from consequences rightly handed to them.

[#-3]

All I'm saying is glass houses. Resist the urge to join an internet mob, we're all aholes too. The scale is different, but treating people like crap is treating people like crap.

And once again, I am glad for the strong reaction. I just don't think we need to start saying all of those people from that place are terrible people. Let's just agree they did a terrible thing.

[morgin]

I’m pretty comfortable in 2021 assuming that people chanting that #### in public to target a female athlete are terrible people by the standards I hold myself and others to.

I always love these weird “I’m not defending their actions, but just remember we’ve all done terrible things” posts that crop up with these events. No, I’m pretty confident I’ve never done that or anything remotely similar to that, so, I’m gonna keep on judging.

[blender]

Originally Posted by MoneyGuy

I’m not a big guy but I would have gone over for a heart-to-heart with those morons. I did something similar another time.

Yep. Me, too.

[blender]

Originally Posted by #-3

I should remind you that the vast majority of people on this board at one time ~17 years ago participated in or supported a group of 20,000 people chanting at a person was ugly to their face. Crowd mentalities are a hell of a drug, for the most part this was probably spurred by a few bad apples.

Glad they are doing what they can to make these girls feel supported, glad they are bringing the hammer down on these guys as hard as is reasonable. We need to cut down on the social acceptance of these things.

Yous all need to get off your horses a little bit .

You make a valid point, but after considering it I disagree. He was a white male millionaire athlete at the top of the game. He could take it; it comes with the job.

Plus, he really is ugly.