SIDNEY — As the Sidney Yellow Jackets took the court on Tuesday, there was buzz in the stands about the warm-up music.
Screenshots a parent shared to a community Facebook group show Sidney Schools Superintendent Bob Humble asked a student to email him a copy of the songs and lyrics.
A spokesperson for the school said when the superintendent got the list, he reviewed them to see if they were appropriate for a school function–ultimately deciding they were not.
A follow-up conversation two weeks later show why Humble told the student he would not be playing the songs.
In his message, Humble said the songs used the “N-word,” derogatory names for women, and they referenced drugs, guns and killing police officers.
While Humble found the songs to be inappropriate, some parents found his response inappropriate as well–especially his use of the “N-word” twice.
One parent, who did not want to release her name, wanted to say she’s upset with the way Humble responded. She stated that she couldn’t believe a superintendent would respond to a student in that manner.
“It’s not okay. You don’t use the word, there’s no way around it,” she said. “They don’t know how it is as an African American, how that makes us feel.”
She’s who posted the screen shots in the Facebook group, and then hundreds of people commented.
Some disagreed with her, one saying “shouldn’t we be glad that the superintendent listened to the lyrics and chose not to play songs with any of that terminology?”
The parent News Center 7 spoke with says doing so did not score him any points.
“At the end of the day, it’s a child he’s responding to and he’s a superintendent, he’s over the whole district. You have to set an example, he should have responded in a more professional way,” she said.
A screenshot showing the superintendent’s apology on Instagram said he cares deeply for every student at Sidney and would never intentionally hurt them and that he was sorry. Humble has since deleted his account.