PA hockey league bans students from games after offensive chants at female goalie

Middle school and high school students at a Pennsylvania school are now prohibited from attending hockey games for the remainder of the season after they allegedly chanted sexually explicit phrases at a visiting female hockey player.

The incident took place during a hockey game in late October between the Mars Fighting Planets and the Armstrong River Hawks, according to The New York Times.

In videos circulated online, students from Armstrong Junior-Senior High School appeared to be chanting “she’s a wh—” and other inappropriate comments.

The Pennsylvania Interscholastic Hockey League announced on Thursday that students from Armstrong Junior-Senior High School would no longer be allowed to attend games.  

“Clearly, the incident that happened on October 28 was completely unacceptable and the entire hockey community must take steps to ensure that any similar conduct will never happen again,” Mars Hockey Club Board of Directors said in a statement on Saturday.

“We are hopeful that the attention this incident has drawn will shed light on the issues our female athletes face which must not be tolerated and that this attention will help with eliminating this type of conduct from our sport,” they added.

Officials noted earlier this week that the students had been disciplined. 

“Appropriate school discipline has been used,” Armstrong principal Kirk Lorigan said, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Lorigan noted that they were still investigating the incident, though details on how the students were disciplined were not immediately made clear.  

The Mars Area School District’s superintendent confirmed to the Times that Armstrong Area School District had formally apologized and would plan on issuing an apology to the female goalie as well.

The Hill has reached out to Armstrong County Board of Commissioners, Lorigan, and a spokesperson for the Mars Area School District for comment.