(WBAY) — The Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association is under social media fire for its sportsmanship guidelines at high school games, advising against chants that many people find harmless.
The viral outcry comes after a Hilbert student-athlete tweeted at the WIAA, using a word that most people would find offensive.
Chants like “scoreboard,” “airball”, “sieve”, even “fundamentals” are not acceptable, according to an email the WIAA sent out to 510 schools before winter break.
Superintendent of the Hilbert School District, Tony Sweere, says, “This is something we’ve been enforcing for many, many years.”
The recent reminder prompted April Gehl, one of the Hilbert girl’s basketball team’s star players to tweet an expletive at the WIAA. She is now suspended for five games.
Sweere says, “If the WIAA issue wouldn’t even be in here, and this was a comment that would be made to a teacher or an administrator, there still would have been an issue.”
The Hilbert student’s tweet has hundreds of shares, thousands of likes, and has inspired a number of Twitter hashtags mocking the WIAA about the kinds of chants it may allow under the guidelines.
WIAA’s Todd Clark says, “When we look at some of the chants that are directed to young people through an education-based activity, you think you might want to see a higher level of expectation of sportsmanship.”
Each school district is in charge of enforcing the WIAA guidelines. The WIAA says it will likely take a harder look at those recommendations when a committee meets this spring.