Rachel King

The volleyball team spent the week dealing with internal struggles due to alleged racist content shared by a player on the team’s group chat over the weekend. The volleyball team will compete in substate games starting Saturday at 3 p.m. at Mill Valley High School.

The BVNW girl’s varsity volleyball team Snapchat group chat was forwarded a TikTok with racist content Friday.  

According to senior volleyball player Sophie Lage, the message was sent by a player on the volleyball team.

Principal David Sharp said the administrative team intervened and worked through the situation with the player who sent the message.

“It was reported, it was investigated, due process was given and then it was addressed,” Sharp said.  

Athletic director Debbie Katzfey elaborated on the procedure for dealing with situations like this.

“The coach reports it to me as the athletic director or another assistant principal, or [their] direct supervisor. And then we investigate. We make sure we have given due process, which is to make sure that both sides have been heard from any situation,” Katzfey said. “Then we act upon it as quickly and swiftly as we can to show that we take every concern that our students at Blue Valley Northwest have as serious.”

Lage said volleyball coach Molly Haggerty removed the player from the group chat and immediately started handling the incident.

“Haggerty is very disappointed about it, but I think she handled it very well because the only way the player can know that is wrong is by knowing the consequences,” Lage said.

BVNWnews contacted Haggerty but she declined to comment at this time in an effort to allow the players on her team to have a chance to move forward. 

Katzfey said in light of recent events, the administration has continuously made an effort to help teammates deal with uncomfortable situations.

“We’ve tried to make sure that we talk to the entire team and or address the entire program, so that everybody feels like they’ve been heard and had a voice and we can move forward… that has been consistent,” Katzfey said. “We’ve tried to make sure everyone feels heard and listened [to] and validated because everybody at the end of the day has the opportunity to move forward or not. And we want them to be able to do that.” 

Lage said the team was surprised the message came from the player, and that it shocked them all.