Crowd Color Controversy Prompts White Ban

After fielding concerns from the community, administration is discouraging leadership from promoting “white-outs” at football games. As a result, leadership has been consistently designating red as the apparel color of choice for those attending the Friday evening sporting events.

“I’ve been approached by several students and families and been told that white-outs make some members of our community uncomfortable, especially if we are playing against a school where there are a lot of students of color,” said principal John Walker.  “There is no official ‘rule’, but I encourage them to hold red-outs, and I discourage them from holding white-outs.”

“White-outs” had been promoted in the past by leadership as an alternative to “red-outs.”

“I think a lot of students get upset that we make every football game a red-out, but I also don’t think that every student understands that we’re not allowed to do a white-out,” said Rachel Brickman, who added that leadership wasn’t allowed to work around this rule by promoting an “ivory-out” or “cream-out”.

“I understand the message, but I also think that white’s a color and that it’s one of our school colors. Yeah, we’re red and blue, but half of the Campo shirts at this school are white, and the football jerseys are white, so why can’t we wear that color?” asked Brickman.

Although the football jerseys are white, this isn’t enough of a reason to allow white-outs, according to Walker. “I don’t think [the white jerseys have the same effect] because part of the jersey color is determined by the rules of the game,” added Walker. “I think that having a full student section [of white] feels different than having white jerseys.”

Brickman argued that while refraining from wearing white might be a good idea when competing against schools with more diverse demographics, it shouldn’t be an issue against schools in the Lamorinda area. “Against certain teams I guess it would make sense because we don’t want to give off a ‘vibe’- especially if they’re a high-minority school- but against Miramonte and Acalanes, they have the same demographics as us and they’re allowed to do them, so that was one other frustrating aspect,” added Brickman.

Walker also noted that wearing white is not completely banned. “When [students] wear a special shirt for a special game, that does promote school spirit and I think it’s a nice thing to have,” said Walker. “Wearing a white t-shirt with a slogan on it, like ‘Go Campo’ or one of the other creative things that football comes up with, that’s different than kids going head-to-toe with white sweatpants, white sweatshirt, white face paint- that has a different feel than the white t-shirts.”

“I don’t know the administrative history behind this- I imagine if we have a game where we have to travel to state ever again, we’d have to do a white shirt for travel, but that doesn’t mean the game would be a white-out,” said head football coach Kevin Macy, who added that white t-shirts are cheaper and faster to produce than colored shirts. “The functionality is, if you’re going to make a shirt in a short period of time, you’re almost always going to have to go white.”

“The student’s section [this year] has been really strong, and you want to do whatever you can to keep [the team] excited and united,” added Macy.