PA High School Students Banned from Hockey Games After Vulgar Chants at Female Goalie

On Thursday, the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Hockey League banned the students of Armstrong High School from its hockey games after a cheering section of around 50-60 people chanted vulgarities at the female goalie for the Mars Fightin' Planets team on Oct. 28, per the Associated Press (h/t ESPN). 

"The game should've been stopped until the behavior stopped or the fans were escorted out of the building," PIHL Commissioner John Mucha said, adding that the charts were  "disgusting" and "absolutely more than kids being kids."

Armstrong principal Kirk Lorigan said last week that the school was "appalled and embarrassed” by the actions of its student section, per Mike White of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

"In my mind, this should've been stopped immediately by anyone that was there who has any moral value at all," he added. "I'm disgusted by it. … There were a lot of people there who could've handled this differently."

Mars coach Steve Meyers said the chants left the goalie in tears after the second period.

"We have no one else. She plays varsity and JV for us," he told the AP. "We've had plenty of girls in this league before and never heard anything like this. With all the training we're required to do as coaches about safe sports and sportsmanship, this should not happen. For it to fail this badly, it's really disappointing."

Team USA Olympic hockey player Meghan Duggan offered the young athlete her support:

Armstrong County commissioners extended the student ban for the school to kids in Grades 7-8 alongside the PIHL's ban, while high school administrators are demanding the league provide two security guards per game. 

"Clearly, the incident that happened on October 28 was completely unacceptable and the entire hockey community must take steps to ensure that any similar conduct will never happen again," the Mars club said in a statement. "We are hopeful that the attention this incident has drawn will shed light on the issues our female athletes face which must not be tolerated and that this attention will help with eliminating this type of conduct from our sport."