A Florida high school baseball coach is considering legal action after a video containing a racially charged caricature of him surfaced over the weekend.
The News-Press reports that in the video, North Fort Myers coach Tavaris Gary is depicted in a wall drawing as having a noose around his neck and that Gary's predecessor, David Bechtol, is smashing the wall with a sledgehammer. The video caused an uproar in Lee County, Fla., after it was posted on Snapchat and made its way around the region.
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Gary is black. Bechtol is white. Gary says he plans to file a complaint with the Lee County Sheriff's Office.
"It disgusts me," Gary told the News-Press. "It bothers me. I don't know how far they would take this, and I don't know who they know." Gary told the News-Press the county school board is investigating the incident.
Bechtol, who coached the team last season, claims there was no malice intended. He says a friend drew the noose without his knowledge and the wall was being torn down as part of a renovation project. Bechtol told the News-Press the friend is no longer welcome in his house.
"We're cleansing ourselves," Bechtol told the News-Press. "We're knocking down walls. We're forgetting about the past. We're forgetting about discourses we've had with people in the past."
Bechtol told the News-Press he called Gary on Sunday morning to apologize but Gary hung up on him. Gary said he won't accept an apology.
Gary, a former minor leaguer for the Cardinals, is the first African-American baseball coach in Lee County since the county integrated its school system in the late 1960s.