Plan B Forum

If this is real why has not been noticed on the national news?


http://www.nationalreview.com/article/3 ... rine-timpf

A winning high-school football coach was fired after the team’s tradition of eating watermelon after games was deemed “inappropriate” and “racist.”

Bud Walpole had been coaching Academic Magnet Raptors football team, and was in the middle of a very successful season, according to CBS Charlotte.

A current Raptors player said the tradition began when players bought watermelons from a man who had been selling them on their route to the game. If they won the game, the team decided, they would eat the watermelon. After they did win, they smashed the watermelon on the ground and then ate it. (The team had to smash their victory fruit because they, understandably, did not have a knife on the sidelines.)

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The ritual continued at subsequent victories — until one parent from an opposing school allegedly complained.
According to Charleston school-board member Mike Miller, a parent approached him and said he was offended by the students eating watermelon. The parent also alleged some of the kids were making what sounded like monkey noises.

This parent’s complaint led to a Charleston County School District investigation into the watermelon-eating and Walpole’s eventual firing.

Walpole will still be allowed to teach at the school. Thousands have signed an online petition demanding that he be reinstated as coach.

— Katherine Timpf is a reporter at National Review Online.

(Edited on order of grammar police)

(a) for Pete's sake review and edit your posts
(b) you mean CNN isn't mainstream enough for you? Foxsports? ABC news? Miami Herald?

"Players would gather in a circle and smash the watermelon while others were either standing in a group or locking arms and making chanting sounds described as, 'Ooh, ooh, ooh,'" school district Superintendent Nancy McGinley said, describing the noises as "monkey sounds." The watermelon was decorated with caricatures drawn with Sharpie markers, she added.

- CNN

I guess it did make national news--from a fox news website:


High school football coach reinstated after fired for controversial ‘watermelon ritual’

Posted 10:07 am, October 23, 2014, by Ashton Edwards and CNN Wire, Updated at 10:09am, October 23, 2014


CHARLESTON, S.C. – High school football coach Bud Walpole was offered his job back, effective Thursday, CNN affiliate WCBD reported.

The school district superintendent invited him back Wednesday only after Walpole submitted a written commitment to focus more on diversity and sensitivity training, according to a statement.

A high school football coach in Charleston, South Carolina, was fired after he permitted a post-game celebratory ritual involving a watermelon that some say is racist.

After a parent reported the “watermelon ritual” to the school board, the Charleston County School District launched an investigation and ultimately fired Academic Magnet High School coach Bud Walpole, according to WCSC.

“Players would gather in a circle and smash the watermelon while others were either standing in a group or locking arms and making chanting sounds described as, ‘Ooh, ooh, ooh,'” school district Superintendent Nancy McGinley said, describing the noises as “monkey sounds.”

The watermelon was decorated with caricatures drawn with Sharpie markers, she added.

Dot Scott, president of the Charleston branch of the NAACP, said the organization supported the school’s decision to fire Walpole.

Scott thanked the superintendent at a Wednesday press conference “for her swift attention to an inappropriate and racially insensitive ritual performed by the football team.”

The school district has not yet responded to CNN’s request for comment.

A number of parents and students, however, are standing in support of Walpole, who coached at the school for 10 years.

More than 4,000 people have signed a petition to reinstate the ousted coach, as of Wednesday afternoon.

Some say they don’t see the ritual as racist.

“I just don’t understand why the school district is concerned this is an issue,” Connie Biggs, the president of Academic Magnet’s Booster Club told WCSC. “Is it because it’s a watermelon? If it had been a pumpkin or a cantaloupe would that have been a different reaction from the district?”

Harry Griffin, a junior at The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina, said he has known Walpole for six years and considers the coach a man of integrity.

Griffin played for Walpole’s high school team as a fullback and nose guard.

CNN first learned of this story through an iReport Griffin uploaded.

“Coach Walpole was fired because his team had a harmless tradition that was made to seem prejudiced,” Griffin wrote in a CNN iReport. “They had a post-game ritual of smashing a watermelon and eating it after every victory. A parent on an opposing team deemed this act as racist and the school board decided to interrogate the players.”

Some parents are taking issue with how the investigation was conducted and how students were questioned about the ritual.

“The school district is not telling us what they said to these kids,” Biggs said. “They’re giving us two questions that they say that they asked but these interviews have lasted 10-20 minutes apiece, so I’m really unclear how two questions could take that long.”

Griffin called Walpole’s firing an injustice.

“I want to help my coach get his integrity back,” Griffin said.

“You can ask anyone that has ever met Bud Walpole if he has ever said or done anything that would cause you to think he was racist. Nobody would ever say such a thing.”

By Christina Zdanowicz and Melonyce McAfee


If you google it, there are also CNN and CBS stories on the firing.

watermelon is the best food in the world. it tastes so good that I make monkey noises when I eat it too. ooh ahhh oh ummmm.

it quite racist to associate it with black people only. white people love watermelon too!

You've not been here all that long, have you wes?

wesw wrote:watermelon is the best food in the world. it tastes so good that I make monkey noises when I eat it too. ooh ahhh oh ummmm.

it quite racist to associate it with black people only. white people love watermelon too!

I imagine this has reduced significantly the number of dinner party invitations you receive.

what s a party invitation?

Sometimes it's the people who find offense in the matter that have the problem.
Did the watermelon team have any black players that participated in the eating of the watermelon?

Apparently it was one of the opposing team's supporters that complained.

I saw that, but am wondering if there were any black players on the Academic Magnet Raptors football team and if so, did they participate.

oldr_n_wsr wrote:Academic Magnet Raptors

The mind boggles.

#38 looks a little suspicious...

Do you remember that white racist performer that would smash watermelons with a large mallet, Galigar or some such name?

yes, I m glad you said performer, not comedian, he wasn t very funny except for the melon thing

yes, I m glad you said performer, not comedian, he wasn t very funnyexcept for the melon thing at all

Fixed that for you...

wesw wrote:what s a party invitation?

Rather making @W's point...

What Jim said.

You people just ain't Americun enuff.



Two of your favourite people.....

Well, I really don't like Gallagher either, but he's head and shoulders above Carrot Top; at least Gallagher had the smashing fruit routine.

I'm having watermelon with my lunch today.

Just no monkey noises and you'll be fine.