Racial Slur Written on Bench of Harlem Team at Staten Island Game - New York Times: The police and city education officials said yesterday that they were investigating the appearance of a racial slur on a bench that was to be used by a Harlem high school football team at a game on Saturday at Staten Island Technical High School.
Besides trying to determine who was responsible for the slur, school investigators were looking into the response of Staten Island Tech faculty members, said Margie Feinberg, a spokeswoman for the Department of Education. The coach of the Harlem team, sponsored by Wadleigh High School, accused two Staten Island Tech faculty members of trying to trivialize the incident.
The coach, Duke Fergerson, said he noticed the slur written in black ink on the top of a metal bench assigned to his team, the Harlem Hellfighters, about an hour before it was to begin its game at noon against the McKee/Staten Island Tech Seagulls. Mr. Fergerson said the slur contained a common racial epithet and the initials “M.S.I.T.,” which he believed to refer to the Staten Island team.
