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Tyler Agans, Tylor Petchonka, Andrew Horun, Broderick Bupivi, Jimmy Schuitema, Tim Hinkle, Garrett Wolfinger, DJ Wissing, Scott Wilhelm

Eight members of the Phillipsburg High School wrestling team in New Jersey claim that a controversial picture of them wearing hoods surrounding a Black wrestling dummy with a noose wrapped around his neck was intended to depict a suicide, not a lynching, reports NJ.com.

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The wrestlers — Andrew B. Horun, Tyler Agans, Jimmy Schuitema, Tim Hinkle, Broderick Bupivi, Daniel Wissing, Tyler Petchonka, Garrett Wolfinger, who of course are all White — apologized for the racial undertones of the inflammatory image, but insist that no harm was intended and that their punishment is too harsh.

Read more at NJ.com:

The photo shows seven of the boys posing around the wrestling dummy wearing a Paulsboro High T-shirt and a Kittatinny High singlet and hanging with a rope around its neck. Two of the boys wore hoods pulled over their heads in a point.

The eight boys were suspended three days and banned from wrestling in the postseason, starting with today’s District 1 tournament at Phillipsburg.

“It’s a case of youthful exuberance,” Wilhelm said. “They were the best team Phillipsburg’s had in 40 years, and they were celebrating themselves.”

The suicide note, according to Wilhelm, read, “To Whom It May Concern. The Kittatinny singlet was enough. The (Paulsboro) T-shirt pushed me over the edge.”

Wilhelm said at the time the teens did not understand the inappropriateness of the image they created.

If they were 25, 26, that criticism would be justifiable,” Wilhelm said. “But they’re 15 or 16. Face it — kids at that age do stupid stuff.”

See the team’s apology below:

Though the teens have put on their best innocent faces, some members of the community are not buying it.

“I don’t know what they were thinking,” said Loretta Winters, president of the N.A.A.C.P.’s chapter in Gloucester County. “Who hangs anybody by a noose? And points the hoodie into a tent to look like the Ku Klux Klan?”

The Warren County prosecutor’s office is working with the Phillipsburg police department to investigate the possibility of criminal activity involved with the highly problematic and racial photo.

“We’re in the process now of gathering information about it to determine if there was any criminality involved in the process,” said Warren County Prosecutor Richard T. Burke. “We opened up a file and started our investigation.”

Read the wrestlers’ statement below:

Wrestlers Statement

NJ High School Wrestling Team Claims ‘Noose’ Photo Depicts Suicide, Not Lynching  was originally published on newsone.com