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SPRINGFIELD, Tennessee (WSMV) — A Springfield Middle School parent was suspended from the baseball diamond after yelling racial slurs at the coach.
Latoya Groves doubled down on her words Thursday. She admitted to calling the coach, ‘coach c–n’ at a game, then taking to Facebook where she called him a ‘house n—-.’
“I don’t care about my language,” she said. “They don’t care about our kids, then I don’t care about how they feel, and I’m going to call them what they are.”
According to Groves, her son is being discriminated against by the Springfield Middle School Baseball Coach, who hasn’t allowed her son to play because he’s black. The baseball coach is also black. In a Facebook live video recorded at a game Groves could be heard saying, “He doesn’t relate to black people, because he thinks he’s white.”
Groves was suspended from two games following the use of the racist language. “I’m not racist. I’m not prejudiced, he’s prejudiced,” Groves said. “That’s why the names that he got called against him because he’s a prejudiced man. He is prejudiced against his own color.”
A Robertson County Schools spokesperson sent the following statement to News4:
What you don’t put on their skin is as important as what you do.
Robertson County Schools was recently made aware of a complaint regarding students on Springfield Middle Schools’ baseball team receiving playing time based on the color of their skin. This complaint was investigated, and no evidence was found supporting such claim.
In regard to this situation, the district has also received multiple complaints concerning a parent, along with acquaintances, attending games and verbally harassing the coach, the players, and other parents, using profanity and racial slurs. This harassment included recording and posting videos of other students online without the knowledge or consent of their parents.
The district fully supports Coach Cumberbatch and condemns any unruly, disrespectful, vulgar, or abhorrent behavior by parents and spectators. In this instance, appropriate actions have been taken to restore and ensure conduct that reflects the good sportsmanship tradition of SMS.
The Robertson County Sheriff’s Office told News 4 they are also investigating the inappropriate comments they say appear to be slanderous in nature.
Groves said she has never been given a reason why her son was benched. “Don’t they think it’s racist that he won’t play any black kids? They’re concerned about my language, but they’re not concerned that he’s not playing any black children,” she said.
Coach Cumberbatch declined an interview.
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