A group of 12 international students gathers on OU’s recreational fields to play soccer weekly. Last week, an incident occurred where some lacrosse team members used racial remarks when asked to use their old equipment.
One of the twelve, Ammar Al-Batrani, said, “We asked them, and some of them responded rudely just because we asked.”
Three members of the team then made many racial remarks at the group of students. Batrani said that he reported the incident to OU’s ISS and OU Fitness and Recreation.
“They investigated three of them then heard our story, and we’re like, you can’t investigate three of them. It has to be the whole team. So I guess they’re investigating the whole team.”
While the investigation is in progress, Batrani said they’ll still play the game, but his confidence will never feel the same.
“We usually send a list of players and a time to play, and whoever wants to play they will just sign up. So we have a number, but after the incident, it became pretty hard to fill up the list. Nobody wants to play. It affects you.”
We contacted the Office of International Student Services and OU Fitness and Recreation but have not heard back with any new information.