News Update

Coronado High basketball coach fired after tortilla-throwing incident at championship game

Coronado High School head basketball coach JD Laaperi was fired by the Coronado Unified School Board on Tuesday after tortillas were thrown at the opposing team Saturday night, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.

The incident, which has gained national media attention, happened during a division championship game between Coronado High and Orange Glen High, located in Escondido, which has a predominantly Latino student population.

Laaperi also allegedly cursed at the Orange Glen coach after the game.

The tortillas apparently were brought to the game by an adult community member who passed them out to students. In a Tweet Sunday, Laaperi called the incident “unacceptable and racist in nature.”

Since then the man who brought the tortillas to the game, Luke Serna, has come forward to say there was no racial intent. Serna, who says he is half-Mexican and a Coronado alumnus, said he gave the tortillas to Coronado players for celebration, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. In an unsigned letter to the school board, Serna said that throwing tortillas is a tradition at UC Santa Barbara, the university he attended.


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