Marin District Blasts KTVU Report On High School Football Probe

NOVATO, CA — Novato’s top educator issued a statement last week blasting erroneous coverage of a high school football team accused of using racist slurs.

The Novato Unified School District has hired an outside investigator to probe allegations that San Marin High School players directed the slurs at a Tamalpais High player who is Black during an Oct. 30 game in Mill Valley, The Marin Independent Journal reports.

NUSD Superintendent Jan La Torre-Derby took aim at KTVU news for showing video of Novato High’s football team and the campus along with the school’s mascot during its coverage of the San Marin probe.

La Torre-Derby said she contacted KTVU and that newsroom staffers told her “they removed all photos or visual references to Novato High School and profusely apologized to the error they made.”

“I appreciate those of you that alerted me to the news clip this morning so it could be corrected and avoid further damage to NHS (Novato High School) who is not involved in the investigation nor allegations in any way,” La Torre-Derby said in a statement.

“The media can often create unnecessary angst due to misinformation and unsupervised work. This was one of those cases and we want to make sure everyone knows that NHS is not involved in any way with these accusations or investigation regarding football.”

Tamalpais senior tight end Billy Kuhns told The Marin Independent Journal he heard the San Marin players use racial slurs.

"This is something we don't stand for," he told The IJ

The accused San Marin players have denied using racial slurs, and the referees can't corroborate the allegations according to school administrators, the report said.

San Marin won the game 36-26 and went on to win the state Division 5-AA state championship, its first in school history.