There was an article in USA Today about an Indiana team shouted down with Racist slurs leaving a competition that was . That makes me nauseous.
One of the main things I highlight to other parents of kids interested in robotics is that the VEX kids become a tight community. Older kids helping younger teams. Teams share ideas online and at the competitions. Established teams pick newbies as their 3rd alliance and the newbies are lifted up.
Really, I’m shocked this happened at an elementary school. What are your experiences at the competition? What can we do to build our community?
1 Like
We are shocked to hear that the Panther Bots were subjected to such horrific comments. As you know, the VEX IQ Challenge celebrates students of all ages, ethnicities, backgrounds and from countries around the world. Together, the REC Foundation and VEX Robotics, simply do not permit disrespectful behavior among students, faculty or their families who participate in our programs. For more about that, we invite you to look at VEX IQ Challenge Game Manual Rule G16 and VEX Robotics Competition Game Manual Rule G17. Looks like the Panther Bots have risen above this deplorable incident, and we can’t wait to see them compete and meet up with many more teams from around the globe at the VEX Robotics World Championship next month!
Actually, I’m rather disappointed with the sensationalist headline.
This is really not a story about racism. It’s a story about a couple sore losers, and a community that has more interesting challenges to solve than name-calling.
Agree with that. Its not about racism, just sore losers. We have met several like that before even in SoCal. It was a very cocky team that people quickly realized that its just the way they were. They (including their coach) learned that they were not so great after a few scrimmages. Just give them time to learn. Some reporters use any chance to present racism-like stories even at kid level. Wonder if it was name calling one time or something happened during entire course of the event (I am sure other teams have at least someone of diversity).
Edit: A good reporter would have covered more than just that one moment. The article should have covered how many out of 35 schools that competed, was this the only team that had various ethnic backgrounds. Did the parents that yelled out at this team also yell at other teams that had at least one student of color. If not, it would be clear that this was a display of poor sport.