Today is Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Today is Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Marching band’s Head Visual Instructor Alex Blue left the band’s annual retreat and was absent from several band rehearsals the following week. Blue, a 24-year-old African-American, left after being offended by student skits.
“I was in complete shock because it was people I trusted committing the offense,” Blue said.
The incident occurred during the traditional camp “Skit Night,” held at the YMCA’s Camp Jones Gulch on Saturday, September 12.
According to band members, the trumpet section used randomly assigned costume masks as props, giving a gorilla mask to the student playing Blue’s character. The association between Blue and the term “ape,” a derogatory name for African-Americans, caused Blue to leave the room at the end of the skit.
“In the fallout from the incident, I have come to realize that the people involved were ignorant to their actions,” Blue said. “They were not aware that they were making a racial reference.”
Drum Major junior Jordan Hamel agreed.
“No one knew it was a derogatory term,” Jordan said. “It was all an accident because we have an uninformed school. We live in a bubble.”
Senior Tommaso Carli, co-trumpet section leader with senior Johan Mickos, agreed.
“We felt stupid for not making the connection,” Tommaso said.
Tommaso said that he and Johan followed Blue out of the room to apologize but were unsuccessful.
The following drumline skit, according to Assistant Drum Major Kayla Valpey, depicted a “story of [Blue’s] life.” The skit was set in Oakland and featured Blue as the victim of a gang-related drive-by shooting. The skit then outlined Blue’s funeral and “a lot of racist comments were made.”
Following the skit, the remaining three Instructional Staff members left the room, said low brass section leader senior Christian Mason.
“People trying to get the best jokes … turned their filters off when they were planning skits, and things just went too far,” Christian said.
Blue left the camp at 10:30 p.m. and was driven home by another Instructional Staff member.
Tommaso said the Leadership Staff decided to continue rehearsing during the retreat.
“[It was] something that everyone involved … regrets terribly,” Instrumental Music Department and Marching Band Director Ted Ferrucci said. “Everyone respects [Blue] and cares about him and the last thing the kids wanted to do was hurt or offend Alex.”
Blue returned the following Tuesday for a meeting with select Leadership Staff members.
He addressed the entire Leadership Staff on Thursday and returned to rehearsal on Friday, September 18, when motivational speaker Scott Lang visited. Lang, who has already visited the band twice before in the last two seasons, gave the marching band students a seminar that Friday night with the goal of boosting band morale.
“[Lang’s speech] really helped and it kind of solved a lot of problems because it was very personalized this time,” Christian said. “We want our band to be a family.”
Ferrucci said that he deeply regrets the incident.
“We need to use this as an educational moment to make the world better,” Ferrucci said.
