Dear Portland Public Schools,

This narrative is not just about the aftermath effect on the Roosevelt High School
cheerleaders after the experience at one of Lincoln's basketball games, nor are we
trying to embody an overly sensitive outlook on the experience.
Roosevelt is the most diverse high school in Oregon and we are located in a less
affluent community. When you walk into the doors at Roosevelt, students dont feel like
the outliers as they would at a school in the suburbs. With over 25 languages spoken in
our hallways you can sense the pride radiating off of students as they embrace their
heritage in a school rich of many different cultures.
Keying into diversity, our basketball teams are nothing short from that. Our
basketball teams have historically been made up of predominately African Americans as
well as the cheer team. We have often played against schools that had people of color
on their teams; Jefferson, Benson, Madison, so notably we did not feel attacked walking
into their territories. Going up against schools who are made up of majority White
students, you can definitely notice the atmosphere of the room change when we enter
as a school.
Roosevelt, being historically diverse has been exposed to stereotypes that go
much farther than just the school we go to. Roosevelt Ratchets, a very common label
put onto the faces of young students who attend our school grounds.
In a scenario when we are asked what school we go to, we reply Roosevelt,
only to be returned with a shocked reaction, and a I wouldve never thought a student
like you would go to a school like that. Roosevelts boundary lines are becoming much
larger, while more sought out schools become more exclusive even if its just across the
St. Johns bridge. What can we do as students full of potential while we are weighed
down by the negative stigma we hold as Roosevelt students?
On the night of February 11th, the stacked boys and girls Varsity basketball
game, the cheerleaders ended up riding with the Varsity boys all the way to Lincoln. We
were scheduled to cheer both games; but were not able to since we arrived late and
halftime for the girls was only three minutes away. We stepped foot into Lincoln with our
Varsity boys and immediately felt out of place. Not only because we were in Coach

Adelmans home territory, but we were all aware of his lack of humanity in a previous
basketball against Jefferson which was all over media. However, in the back of our
minds we had high hopes that Coach Adelmans actions did not reflect that of his teams,
or Lincoln High as a whole.
We quickly assembled across the gym from our schools student and family
section, which happened to be right beside Lincolns student section. To our surprise,
many of the Lincoln Varsity boys were sitting watching the girls play as they waited for
their game to begin. As we put our things on the bleachers, our team had just received a
foul in which resulted in Lincoln to get two free-throws, we rushed to get into our usual
lines and start a stomp. It has always been a tradition to stomp together as a squad
while the opposing team is preparing to execute the free-throws. We performed our
loudest stomp in celebratory support for our team. As we stomped we could hear the
disapproval of Lincoln's own players shouting comments such as Oh my God! Thats so
disrespectful! Shut up! Shut up! as he followed with a mockery of our stomps and
began to make thrashing movements on the bleachers as soon as our girls began to
shoot for their free-throws. A sign of entitlement, along with ignorance behind the culture
our stomps hold.
Stomps have been historically used by schools like Jefferson, Benson and
Roosevelt. Our stomps hold more significance to us and our community than what
would be viewed as discouraging another school's basketball team during a free-throw.
Stomp and shake doesn't date back to any one particular day or event but rather in
movements. Throughout Black/African American history, rhythm and beats are the
eloquence of the culture. From our roots in Africa and still to this very day, Africa is the
birthplace of our rhythm with dance of praise, worship, celebration and spirit
(Stomp&Shake). Our stomps reveal Roosevelts pride in the roots of cultures that are
celebrated through our hallways. These insulting comments not only took a jab at our
school for being disruptive, but also took a jab at a culture as if deeming our culture as
abnormal and inhumane. The culture shock to our acts of celebration was deemed as
rude and distasteful, but their wailing in response was their own entitlement. We were
not welcomed, and to us the mockery felt almost as cultural appropriation.

Fast forward to the boys Varsity basketball game, the Varsity Lincoln players
were on the court so we pictured the mockery to be over. We were wrong. Instead of
having Lincoln basketball boy players bashing us, they were replaced by a crowd of
every day students that represented Lincoln. Their daily lives differed from ours; the
crowd was made up of fifteen White boys. We cheered the game like normal, Roosevelt
was neck and neck with Lincoln throughout the beginning of the game. When one of our
boys was fouled, we got ready to stomp and as soon as we started we were bombarded
with groans and stop and turn down your ratchetness. What depicted us as ratchet?
Because we were majority women of color that went to a school made up of minorities?
It was shocking thinking of this. They yelled discriminating comments frequently, even
as their players of color were playing for their schools honor as a "top notch" team. Yet
because our team is predominantly black we were deemed ratchet and unworthy of
winning, as their student screamed to our boys, "You think you're badass, huh." Those
players of color in that moment, was Lincolns one black friend excuse.
It was disgusting to be in the same gym as Coach Adelman, knowing what he did
to his own players to prove some sort of supremacy in the incident with Jefferson and
Lincoln. But it was even more upsetting cheering in a space where hate speech comes
from the own students and it is not dealt with by administrators, even when sitting right
beside them. Towards the last minute of the game, Naly had approached our Athletic
Director; Stuart Smith, to address the issue of the disrespectful comments, only to find
that their athletic director was sitting next to these students the entire time the
comments went on. What is upsetting was they were allowed to yell these comments
and mock our players (basketball and cheer) without penalty. Was this type of hate
speech towards large groups of minorities a normality to Lincolns administration?
It is not just a disrespect to the Roosevelt cheerleaders or to just the Roosevelt
basketball players, but a disrespect to Roosevelt as a high school in the heart of North
Portland.

Sincerely,

Mireya Delara-Vargas and Naly Setthavongsack