Edited on 12-3-2025
*all slurs and crowd comments made were confirmed through video proof and first hand accounts.
Fee-fi-fo-fum. Burger. Gorilla. McDonalds. F*gg*t.
These were the fat-shaming and derogatory comments made by SM East students during the Kansas State High School Activities Association 6A soccer state championship game, directed towards the opposing Washburn Rural high school.
But no consequences were given to those who took the game too far. All because it’s somehow acceptable for a student section to be intensely and harmfully disruptive to the action of the game.
And since the administration members present took almost no action besides making one attempt asking them to stop and then continuing to ignore it, students carelessly bullied players on the opposing team for the rest of the game.
SM East students should be held accountable and receive punishment for disrespectful comments made during games. If it was SM East players being made fun of by the opposing school’s students, SM East students would want the same kind of punishments for them.
The opposing team, their students and the parents simply going to watch their kids compete in a state championship final all lost respect for SM East.
The SM East soccer players had no part in the comments directed at the other team, but the student section represents the image and character of SM East as well as themselves. These remarks aren’t actually how the SM East community is, but they reflect poorly on all students and SM East’s reputation as a whole.
There are expectations and rules for the behavior of players on the field. For people off the field, these expectations should still apply.
Soccer players who receive a yellow card in a high school game must be substituted off immediately and are allowed to return at the next stoppage of play with the referee’s permission. Yellow cards can be issued for swearing or insulting opponents. Players who receive a red card are suspended for the remainder of the game and the following game and are required to complete a sportsmanship course before being allowed back on the field, according to KSHSAA.
If KSHSAA has these rules for players, the same expectations should be in place for those watching the game — especially if it affects the game.
The Shawnee Mission School District High School Handout Code of Conduct states the expectation that all staff members, community members, parents and students must be treated with professionalism, courtesy, dignity and respect. This includes interactions and behaviors both on and off school grounds.
This is the only section of the 35-page handbook that comes close to addressing the student section. The handbook doesn’t specify how to handle sports games or address the expectations needed to facilitate those behaviors.
If rowdy parents are kicked out of games and can even be given cards, just like players or coaches can, undisciplined students should be kicked out too.
According to the KSHSAA’s 2025-2026 soccer manual, sportsmanship should include “being courteous to all, exercising self-control and reflecting positively upon yourself, team and school, and to win with character and lose with dignity.”
Losing the game wasn’t embarrassing. Flipping off the other team’s goalkeeper, mocking celebratory chants from the other team’s student section after the final whistle blew and directing chants at players on the other team, was embarrassing.
All of this could’ve been avoided if the multiple administrators standing on the field in front of the student section had taken charge and stopped those who were shouting.
And this doesn’t mean telling them to stop once, just for students to continue making insulting remarks. This means removing them from the game and possibly taking away privileges to attend other games.
More people are likely to exercise self-control if their chances of going to future games like the SM East vs. Rockhurst basketball game are on the line.
Even though the administration needs to step up, administration shouldn’t have to be responsible for 20 students at the same time if people just exercised self-control and basic human decency.
Amid the many cruel remarks being echoed by the SM East student section, the Lancers lost 2-4 on penalty kicks. We didn’t just lose the game, we also lost respect for our reputation.
We have harmless hype chants like ‘Do It’ and ‘Bananas’ for a reason: so the opposing team isn’t driving home from the game with lower self-esteem. Once disrespectful commentary is directed towards any player, coach, referee or game attendee, it’s unacceptable.One disrespectful comment represents the entire SM East community, and destructive commentary can’t be ignored. The administration must curb these harmful behaviors, and SM East students must recognize the damaging effects of their words on those around them.
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Yall soft
THIS ALL HAPPENED!!! Only the bigots that participated are denying it. Our school will never ever be great if we can’t hold eachother accountable for despicable behavior. The school news paper has every right to bring up a massive issue If none of the responsible adults will. GROW A PAIR AND BE A GOOD PERSON!!!
Totally agree 👍
The role of a student-led newspaper is not to hold students accountable or impose punishment on its own peers. It should not bring up past events, stretch the truth, or ignore key elements that provide the full picture in order to put its own students down or affect their high-school experience in the future. Additionally, if a controversial article is published, the writer and the so-called “evidence” should not be hidden when requested; otherwise, the article should be removed once the truth is revealed. A school newspaper is not the administration, nor does it have the authority to hold students accountable. Its purpose is to supply relevant, meaningful content that supports its student body or doesn’t post an opinion based article that falsely puts its students down.
Lowkey this article is inaccurate and ass
This just isn’t true, none of this stuff was said and our own school newspaper attempting to put down out schools fans is disgraceful and only shines a bad light on the soccer program and the student section. Using false claims and lying about evidence for the only reason of having a story to put out is never the direction a student led newspaper should take. I also would like to condemn the instructor in charge for allowing this to be published, and not finding this article to be hateful and disrespectful towards the very people at the backbone of all sporting events. Any racist or homophobic comments should never be made in any situation, and I believe east students follow these rules during and after games. Anything else said is simply banter, as anyone who has played a competitive sport knows half of the sport is a mental game. The post on instagram should be taken down, and issues of the paper should be followed with an apology about the false claims and lies presented by the writers and supervisors at the SME Harbinger.
The Harbinger sucks. None of this happened and all they are trying to do is make their own school look bad. Why is there no detail about what the opposing team fans were saying to the players? Or the parents? This article is biased and awful. The Harbinger needs to end.
The Harbinger has completely lost the plot. It’s ineffective, mismanaged, and constantly underdelivers on everything it promises. For the amount of money it receives, the results are honestly embarrassing. People keep trying to justify its existence, but there’s nothing to point to except wasted resources and failed expectations. At this point, defunding it isn’t just an option — it’s the only reasonable path forward until it can prove it actually provides real value.
Kids can be awful to each other. It’s always been that way. However, it’s the parent’s responsibility to teach basic curtesy not the schools.
Finally, who would pay for the curtesy police? Are you volunteering?