Black Lives Matter T-Shirts Stirs Controversy
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Black Lives Matter T-Shirts Worn by American Heritage Delray Players Stirs Controversy
By Michael Wholey 12/21/20 1:00 PM EST
Black Lives Matter T-Shirts worn by Varsity Girls Basketball Players Junior Jordana Codio Jordana Codio 6'1" | SF Montverde Academy | 2022 State FL and Freshman Khadee Hession Khadee Hession 5'10" | CG St Thomas Aquinas | 2024 State FL has sparked a controversy at American Heritage Delray.
It has been an interesting past few weeks for the American Heritage Delray Girls Basketball players, coaches, fans, and administration since the Stallions defeated Benjamin School 78–41 on Friday December 4. In that game 2022 Wing Jordana Codio Jordana Codio 6'1" | SF Montverde Academy | 2022 State FL , who is verbally committed to the University of Wisconsin, dropped 25 points, while 2023 Forward Alancia Ramsey Alancia Ramsey 6'0" | PF St Thomas Aquinas | 2023 State FL scored 23 points and 2024 Freshman Khadee Hession Khadee Hession 5'10" | CG St Thomas Aquinas | 2024 State FL went for 19 points. While it was a big win vs a strong Benjamin program who has traditionally been one of the top teams in Palm Beach county, it was the dialogue afterwards that has been the main story.
During warm-ups, Junior Jordana Codio Jordana Codio 6'1" | SF Montverde Academy | 2022 State FL and Freshman Khadee Hession Khadee Hession 5'10" | CG St Thomas Aquinas | 2024 State FL wore Black Lives Matter t-shirts over their game jerseys. The players wore the t-shirts to raise awareness due to racial comments that were used in a virtual classroom at Heritage-Delray several weeks ago. With more of Codio and Hession teammates planning to wear the t-shirts in their next upcoming game scheduled vs their sister school American Heritage Plantation, the game was cancelled as was an upcoming home tournament that was supposed to honor former football coach Brian Sheridan, who died of cancer in September.
The reasoning for the cancellations is conflicting as American Heritage Schools President Douglas Laurie said the game was cancelled over COVID-19 concerns, not the Black Lives Matter shirts stating “We cancelled the games because of COVID. Teams from around the state were going to come in, and we cancelled that because positivity rates are spiking. To have that tournament would have been irresponsible.”
In response, American Heritage Delray Head Coach Brett Studley posted the following from his twitter account “I stand with @jordanacodio and @khadeehession along with the rest of my girls. As coaches we ask so much of our young athletes. We ask them to shed blood, sweat and tears for us. The least we could do is have their backs. It’s our DUTY as coaches to empower our young women and let their voice be heard, especially after a racial attack. We will stand tall as a team and continue to speak out. Fear of punishment will not silence us. Those concerned with COVID, I would like to say our program has not had any COVID cases this season. #blacklivesmatter #notpolitical #letthemplay”
The incident that has sparked the controversy was that during one of American Heritage Delray virtual classes hosted on zoom, a number of student screen names appeared for the entire class to read including “Blacks smell.”
AH President Laurie has stated that an internal investigation has determined that a student from another school hacked into the virtual classroom and was responsible for the “Blacks smell” and Trump screen names and he was able to do so because a student at American Heritage Delray gave him the individual the access code to join the class virtually. Upon completion of the investigation, Laurie emailed AH Delray parents as to what they discovered and while declining to reveal the punishment for the student who made the posts, saying it was not his jurisdiction since that person attends a different school. “We don’t have authority ourselves, but we turned that over to the principal of that child’s school. We did discipline our student for being irresponsible (giving out the passcode), but that student was not guilty of making a racial slur.” He further went on to state “I don’t think racism is a problem at American Heritage. We’re one of the most racially diverse and culturally diverse (private) schools in the United States. I feel like it’s a bit of a witch-hunt in our case and I don’t appreciate it. You can’t throw a punch at somebody and then ask questions later.”
Outside the basketball and South Florida community, this story has picked up attention with multiple individuals coming to the side of Codio, Hession and their teammates.
Natasha Cloud of the Washington Mystics posted the following on Instagram “The administration tried to silence these athletes by canceling games because of a BLM T-shirt should be dismissed … Institutional racism is alive and thriving still in our education system.”
WNBA’s Renee Montgomery who skipped the past WNBA season to focus on social justice reform posted “And you can BLOCK ME I don’t care! As role models to these young athletes, we’re going to stand up with our young future stars. I ask all my followers if you LOVE ME I ask you to REPOST and @ @americanheritagebocadelray. This not fair!”
While local Florida resident and member of the Indiana Fever of the WNBA Erica Wheeler who hosts local camps that both girls have attended previously posted “Keep standing for what you believe in. @americanheritagebocadelray this how you treat Black athletes? So, take away the one thing they love because of what they believe in? Wow, says a lot about your school!” She continued on stating “As role models to these young athletes we’re going to stand up with our young future stars.”
And on December 15, Representative Omari Hardy released a statement stating “I applaud the young ladies of the American Heritage-Delray women’s basketball team. They are speaking out against injustice at risk to their athletic careers. They are our contemporary Muhammad Ali’s and our local Colin Kaepernicks’s. They are getting into good trouble for the right cause, and they deserve our support and solidarity at this time.” You can read his full release by clicking HERE.
The team has resumed playing basketball and lost a close back and forth game 61-59 to Miami County Day Tuesday December 15 after a 10 day layoff with Ramsey, Hession, and Codio all going for double digits.
The story has picked up quite a bit of national attention in addition to local publications such as The Palm Beach Post and The Miami New Times covering the story locally, publications such as Revolt TV, Yahoo Sports, and Slam Magazine have been covering the story.
AH President Laurie has gone on to state “We have a uniform policy, and in this case, we let it slip for a couple days. We’re not going to suspend someone or anything like that because it’s a dress-code violation, but at some point, it becomes defiance of authority. If it continues and continues and continues, we’ll have to go from there.”
Codio’s parents have since met with the American Heritage administration and posted the following statement “As an update to the events last week … We still firmly believe the games scheduled on December 10 & 12 were cancelled due to players wearing BLM shirts. We met with American Heritage and our attorneys last week and are hopeful that they are sincere in finding ways for students of color to express themselves, be heard on social issues, and create a more inclusive culture. We look forward to future conversations with the school about how they plan to accomplish this.”
If any more news comes out of the story, we will continue to update on any developments. The American Heritage Delray Lady Stallions Varsity Girls Basketball team currently stands at 3-1. They are one of the top teams in Palm Beach county and have a chance to make some major noise in the FHSAA state playoffs with a serious shot at a 4A state championship. The roster is talented and deeper than in years past as in addition to Codio, Hession and Ramsey, 2023 Taylor Romano Taylor Romano 5'6" | CG American Heritage (Delray) | 2023 State FL is averaging 13.3 PPG and 2025 8th Grader Jayleen Nunez Jayleen Nunez 5'4" | PG The Kings Academy | 2025 State FL is getting proving to be a reliable option at the Varsity level averaging 5.8 PPG.