A basketball official in Arizona was fired after he asked a coach for his player’s green cards.
The Arizona Interscholastic Association said that the official, who has not been named, was set to work a game at Walden Grove High School in Sahuarita on Jan. 8 between the school and Pueblo High School.
Prior to tipoff, as the coaches and officials met on the court for an introduction, the official asked the visiting coach if his players had green cards, the association told the Arizona Daily Star.
Brian Gessner, the association’s state commissioner of officials, called what the official said an “insensitive comment.”
“An inappropriate comment was made by an official to a coach, that was overheard by a parent and that the official has since been dismissed by the AIA,” the association said in a statement to Tuscon News Now.
The association was alerted to the remark by Herman House, director of interscholastics for the Tucson Unified School District, who himself was alerted by the Pueblo High School athletic director.
The official, when asked about the remark, told the association that he meant it as a joke. Seth Polansky, sports information director for the association, said that the referee claimed to know that Pueblo’s coach worked for the Border Patrol, but Brandon Sanders, the school’s athletic director, said the coach does not.
Parents and coaches praised the Pueblo High School players for their demeanor after the comment was made.
“They emanated character when someone lost theirs,” Pueblo High School Interim Principal Frank Rosthenhausler said.
Patricia Coleman, the mother of one of Pueblo’s players, told the Daily Star, “Most of the boys had never witnessed or been involved in this type of racism.”
“Breaks my heart that they had to be a part of this ugliness,” she added.
According to school information on U.S. News & World Report, Pueblo has 1,587 students. Approximately 89 percent are Hispanic.
Police Seek DNA Samples After Woman in Vegetative State Gave Birth
The Phoenix Police Department served a search warrant to obtain DNA samples from male staff members at Hacienda HealthCare, where a woman in a vegetative state gave birth on Dec. 29, 2018.
The warrant on Jan. 8 was part of the department’s probe into how the woman got pregnant, according to a press release from Hacienda.
“As a company, we welcome this development in the ongoing police investigation,” the company stated in the release, reported the Arizona Republic.
Like all statements made in the case, the company did not post the information on its website.
Hacienda said that it had considered asking employees for DNA but that attorneys advised against it, believing it would violate federal law.
“Hacienda stands committed to doing everything in our power to bring this police investigation to a quick conclusion,” the company statement said. “We will continue to cooperate with Phoenix police and all other investigative agencies to uncover the facts in this deeply disturbing, but unprecedented situation.”
The Phoenix Police Department declined a request to comment. Apart from confirming that officers are investigating the case, the department has not released any information on the case.
An attorney for the family of the woman said on Tuesday that the baby boy is healthy but it’s not clear who currently has custody of the child, reported KPHO.
The woman has not been named but she’s been described as a 29-year-old Native American woman who has been in a vegetative state for 14 years after nearly drowning.
She was reportedly raped multiple times.
According to The Brain Foundation, “a vegetative state is when a person is awake but showing no signs of awareness.”