Concerns raised over alleged unsportsmanlike conduct at Northeast Texas volleyball match

By Marvin Hurst

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    TEXARKANA, Texas (KTVT) — North Lamar ISD Board Trustee Lauren Woodard quickly said she’s a parent first.

After rowdy student fans created an atmosphere that many called uncomfortable, she’s unsure about sending her daughter to Texarkana’s Pleasant Grove ISD next week.

“I would like to know that I have the ability to put her on a bus and send her to an opponent’s campus and that she will be safe,” Woodard said.

Tuesday night, Woodard said she watched the Panthers girls’ volleyball team take on Pleasant Grove on a live stream. She said the game’s announcers and messages from parents turned her attention to Pleasant Grove’s student section.

“I could tell that some of the students were being aggressive towards our girls,” Woodard said. “I could see that things were being waved at them, that they were being really aggressively yelled at.”

She said the team members did not react.

A video posted on social media shows Pleasant Grove High School students acting up, even potentially spitting on players, behind North Lamar High School’s bench.

Local sports website Texarkana Gameday, which streams the games, said the audio from the match was theirs, but the video was from a cell phone.

Woodard said that after the volleyball game, the North Lamar girls started revealing their ordeal.

“They were being spat on. They were being heckled,” Woodard said. “That’s when you could see the student (in the video) who was acting like he was shooting at them and then making very offensive gestures, not only to the students, not only to the volleyball players but also to the fans in the stands.”

Parents told Woodard they got no assistance to stop the behavior from school resource officers at the match.

In a statement to CBS News Texas, North Lamar ISD parent Laura Fendley said her daughter was spat on.

“It’s disheartening to know that while our girls faced explicit, disrespectful remarks, were spat on, and subjected to mocking gestures, there was no intervention—not from the coaches, teachers, or even the referees,” Fendley said.

North Lamar ISD did not respond to a request for comment.

Pleasant Grove ISD communications director Haley Turner said in a statement, “Our commitment is to foster an environment of respect and sportsmanship, and we are addressing this matter with those involved to uphold the positive standards of our school community.”

Pleasant Grove High won the 7-4A showdown between the district’s first- and second-place teams. The Hawks are now 31-9 overall and 9-1 in district play, while Paris, Texas-based North Lamar High fell to 26-11 and 7-3, according to MaxPreps.com.

The Texarkana Police Department said it has not received any complaints, and the school district is handling the investigation.

Woodard’s daughter Layla is supposed to play basketball with her middle school team at Pleasant Grove. Her mother is on the fence about it.

“I have let my middle school player know that I honestly don’t know if it’s going to be safe for her to play at this facility,” Woodard said. “I don’t know if she’s going to need to suit up, and then just sit in the stands and just watch and just see if people can behave themselves.”

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