US Samoa ban on school sporting events considered harsh
Updated
Teachers and coaches involved with high school sporting teams in American Samoa say it will take more than cancelling games to solve the problem of violence of the pitch.
A particularly agitated clash at the end of a soccer playoff between Tafuna and Leone High Schools recently has led to the Department of Education calling off sporting fixtures for the rest of the school year.
It says there has been an increase in the number of incidents taking place around school sporting events.
The row between supporters of Tafuna and Leone High Schools has been described as particularly bad.
The Education Department says the cancellations are a temporary measure and it will be meeting over the school holidays to discuss ways of tackling the issue.
Presenter: Helene Hofman
Speakers: Alex Godinet, President of the Football Federation of American Samoa; Tamua Matu'u, Athletics Director, Department of Education, American Samoa and Jason Magalei, Coach, Tafuna High School
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GODINET: The game was played full time, was complete full time and then they were shaking hands and congratulating each other. My part, we were setting up for the presentations of the trophy and then all of a sudden we saw in the middle of the field, this whole thing between the two schools are going after each other.
HOFMAN: Pacific Beat's reporter in American Samoa, Monica Miller said that police were called in and managed to restore order.
However, on the way home, one of the team's buses was stoned three separate times and the students and teacher were slightly injured.
After that, the American Samoan Education Department announced all school sporting events for the rest of the year were being cancelled.
Tamua Matu'u, the Athletics Director for the Department of Education, says they were left with no choice.
MATU'U: This is not the first incident that has happened this year, where our kids have fought during after school sports and rather than continue, they felt that it would be best more so for the safety of the kids to cancel the remaining games, to ensure that nothing escalates, especially with graduation coming and more so, so that we can first and foremost ideally is to focus on academics.
HOFMAN: However, not everyone is convinced that cancelling the games is the best solution.
Jason Magalei, the coach for Tafuna High School, which was involved in the incident said the issue is far more complicated.
MAGALEI: I have been teaching for the past nine years and for me it is no different from any other incident that happened between schools and so forth. Sometimes kids have their own little fists and stuff like that with the schools and it's carries onto the school.. You know it is High School Rivalry and stuff like that, I mean we talk about it and so forth. We are teachers and ministers and just need to continue to do our job of getting out and talking to our students and so forth. Our student athletes pretty much feed off of us. As coaches we need to be able to control our kids in manners, sportsmanship and what not.
HOFMAN: Another sticking point have been the fact that with just a few weeks left in the school year and the sporting calendar, the cancellations will only apply to girls basketball and boys baseball.
Alex Godinet, from the Football Federation of American Samoa says the measure is penalising the wrong people.
GODINET: I think it really is not fair. What happened after this game, this soccer game was really nothing compared to what happened on the other sports, especially the American football. You are banning other sports, basketball and all the other sports because of what happened here and you also penalising other schools, other government schools and other private schools because of what happened to these two schools. But I think the Director of Education are more concerned on the safety of these students, because sometimes when two schools get on each other, then they can kind, all of sudden it flows into the other schools, the councillors and the coaches and probably principles of these high schools really needs to pin down the kids that are stirring this kind of nonsense in the game.
