A Colorado high school basketball coach apparently believes teaching his players to hate Jews is more important than teaching them how to play ball!
An image obtained by the New York Post shows “Coach O,” who runs the team at the Lotus School For Excellence in Aurora, “welcoming” their Jewish opponents from the Denver Academy of Torah (DAT) by draping a “Palestinian” flag over the gym rafters during a recent game.
Concerned parents at DAT claim he refused to even shake hands with the opposing coach, a move that got him suspended from his job at Lotus as a subcontracted employee, pending an investigation.
But that isn’t enough for some families, who addressed a letter to the public charter school, demanding a suspension of the entire basketball team because some of its members also reportedly refused to shake hands with their Jewish competitors.
While security footage aired by CBS Colorado reveals opposing teammates did shake hands after their game, it also shows “Coach O,” whom everyone refuses to identify for some reason, arguing with his Jewish counterpart.
“Lotus School cheerleaders also reportedly engaged in demeaning taunts aimed at DAT students,” the letter obtained by CBS read.
“The key issue here is when the coach refuses to engage with a Jewish coach and Jewish students simply because they are Jewish or holding them personally accountable for a conflict started, not by Israel by the way, halfway across the world thousands and thousands of miles away,” explained Brandon Rattiner, who leads Colorado’s Jewish Community Relations Council in an interview with the Post.
“Holding Jewish people accountable for the state actions of Israel is a textbook form of antisemitism,” added Rattiner on behalf of DAT.
He also spoke to CBS, calling out “adults in positions of power” who “use” their “position to advance a political agenda," in this case, green lighting discrimination against certain students.
But the Lotus school’s secondary principal, Ermek Bakyt insisted their coach’s poor sportsmanship “was an isolated incident,” in a response to the network.
“We stand for inclusion… We value diversity,” he assured.
Perhaps their implementation of those two progressive buzzwords is where their problem lies.
Bakyt assured Lotus “does not encourage or tolerate the display of any political or religious symbols,” in an additional comment to the Post. But one social media user unearthed an old Black History Month flyer shared by the school’s Facebook page, championing the late Malcom X for seeking “equality by any means necessary,” and affiliating with the Nation of Islam.
BREAKING NEWS ALERT: Antisemitic, pro-Palestine high school basketball coach suspended after hanging up a Palestinian flag and refusing to shake hands with Jewish coaches on the opposing Jewish school's team. The incident occurred in a game between Lotus School for Excellence in… pic.twitter.com/PkljWQNKLu
— Saint James Hartline (@JamesHartline) January 29, 2025
Bakyt’s plan to “potentially implement further cultural sensitivity training in the future” therefore doesn’t sound very promising.
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