Update: Facing mounting criticism Texas' Plano Independent School District did an abrupt about-face on Friday and rescheduled Plano Senior High's season-opening game against El Paso Eastwood for a Thursday night -- Sept 5 -- at the indoor Ford Center in neighboring Frisco. The Ford Center also serves as the indoor practice facility of the Dallas Cowboys. It is adjacent to the Cowboys' billion-dollar headquarters building.
Plano had cancelled the game on Thursday over the objections of El Paso's Eastwood community. The Plano school district sited unspecified safety concerns even as local police told the media there were no threats. It was an ex-Plano Senior High student who told police he was responsible for an early August shooting spree in El Paso that killed 22 and injured 24. The shooting spree was at a Walmart less than three miles from Eastwood.
The Plano superintendent of schools, who had announced the cancellation of the game 24 hours earlier, said she was adamant that the game would not be played in the outdoor Plano school district stadium where it had been scheduled for Friday, Sept, 6.
Eastwood reportedly already had been in talks with schools from California and Arizona about replacing Plano Senior on its schedule.
Here's the original Forbes story:
Given an opportunity to educate students, a suburban Dallas school district has chosen to pass on teaching what could have been an important life lesson.
Back on Aug. 3, a graduate of Plano Senior High School traveled more than 600 miles from his home in a northern suburb of Dallas and opened fire at an El Paso Walmart. In the carnage, he killed 22 and injured 24 more in what was a racially tinged anti-Hispanic massacre.
Coincidentally, the shooter’s alma mater had been scheduled to open its Texas high school football season on Sept. 6 by hosting El Paso Eastwood High, which is located less than three miles from where the shooting occurred.
Imagine what players, coaches and fans from both schools might have learned from each other pre-game, during the game, and post-game.
What a teaching moment it might have been.
But now the Plano Independent School District, above the protests from the El Paso area school district where Eastwood sits, has cancelled the game.
Plano’s superintendent cited “safety” concerns.
The Plano Police Department, however, reported no credible safety threats. “None, whatsoever, at all,” a Plano police spokesman said.
Still, officer David Tilley, the spokesman, added, “The reward of playing this non-district game was not worth the risk of what could potentially take place.” It was unfortunate wording. As if it matters if the game has state playoff implications or not.
Here’s what should have happened rather than the cancellation: Play the game and allow the school that sits a just beyond the Dallas border, to host the Eastwood players before the contest. Then in the aftermath have the players invited into the homes of their counterparts and, the El Paso teens could then sleep over into Saturday. A little home cooking never hurts.
Know this: According to the “schooldigger.com” website, which tracks demographics, Eastwood is 90 percent Hispanic and seven percent white while Plano Senior is 47 percent white, 20 percent Hispanic and 17 percent Asian. Could a little getting to know one another imperil anyone’s safety?
“We don’t agree with the way this is being handled in Plano,” a school board trustee at the Yselta Independent School District, which includes Eastwood High, told the El Paso Times newspaper. “This is an opportunity for our districts to heal and be who we really are. It’s not fair to the kids, who just want to play football. It’s really unfortunate that the Plano district is unable to stand up to the fear.”
Plano, by the way, also hosted last year’s game in what was to have been a two-game series. No word yet if Plano will host Eastwood next year or if the Wildcats might journey to El Paso.
At least Presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke, a one-time El Paso city councilman and former Congressman from the area, smartly tweeted: “We welcome Plano ISD to come play the (Sept. 6) game here in El Paso…Together, we can make it clear that racism and hate have no place in our state or this country. And the proceeds could go towards helping those impacted by this tragedy.”
