Camas High School (CHS) has had a rough go for the 2021-2022 school year. Thus far, there have been multiple scenarios of racial issues being presented during CHS events. During a CHS basketball game in December, students were accused of yelling racial slurs at an opposing team, and more recently, there have been allegations against the Camas Baseball team for the same reason. 

CHS has been all over the news, and not for the better. Teams that represent Camas as a whole have not done so in a positive way. So, the question is raised, how does the CHS community feel about this representation?

Baseball is not the only sport that is suffering from recent racism allegations. In April, CHS seniors who play lacrosse were not able to celebrate senior night due to their game being canceled against Skyview High School.

People across the CHS community feel strongly about such allegations.

Parent of a CHS student, Alisa Constance, said, “I am a little embarrassed to be part of a school that has that mentality but I feel confident that I raised my daughter to not be like that and to treat others equally and with respect. They need to have additional awareness for the kids in this community on how to handle situations like that because I kind of feel bad that they are also blaming the kids that did nothing.”

A CHS student that wishes to remain anonymous said, “I just think that it’s disgusting that people even think that way, especially that they will exemplify their beliefs in that way during a school event. I hope most of us don’t actually feel that way and there are many students at camas that feel misrepresented.”

Other CHS students feel that these allegations leave Camas unchanged.

“I do think that I have a lower respect for some of the students here, but mostly it’s not different,” said freshman Abigail Wunderli.

People that are involved in CHS generally agree that despite Camas’ reputation taking a beating from these allegations, the school’s position on race remains unchanged. 

However, almost everyone recognizes that something has got to change.

Junior Jasmine Edmundson said, “I still think our school is great in a lot of ways. I wouldn’t say that just because we have a few people saying negative things it’s fair to let them represent the whole school. I feel like people need to be respectful and change and realize that it’s immature and not okay and is probably putting people down which is not a good thing to do.”

CHS has been in a negative media spotlight over this school year. CHS has attempted to combat racism issues with educational advisory lessons on the topic. CHS continues to work hard to better their community as a whole.