An on-ice racial slur by an Oakville high school male hockey player has prompted the school's principal to shut down the team for the season.

The Thomas A. Blakelock Tigers will not skate for the remainder of the 2009-10 Halton Secondary School Athletic Association (HSSAA) season after the player directed a discriminatory slur against a player of Middle Eastern heritage on the Milton District Mustangs on Dec. 16.

Blakelock won the league game, 3-1.

"If that is the chemistry of the team and if we can't make it right ... we shut it down," said T.A. Blakelock principal Kevin Caughlin, who made the decision about pulling the team after consulting with head coach Ken Butler and physical education department head Pam Bovey.

"I understand it's an emotional game. But race, sexual orientation or any other harassment is not part of the game."

Caughlin said he's never shut down a team before, but the racial slur came after another incident of "inappropriate behaviour" on the team. In the first case, three players were booted off the team.

"In this case the majority of the kids on the team are good," he said. "There was a code of conduct and the expectation if an athlete wants to be an ambassador of the school."

Prior to the season, Blakelock wasn't expected to have a team because of a shortage of players.

In the first half of the season, the Tigers were involved in a number of on-ice altercations.

When the team was pulled, before league realignment, the Tigers were 4-5-1.

The HSSAA is also investigating the incident.

Blakelock, which was a Halton finalist in 2006 and 2007, is expected to resume play next season.

A recent Star investigation, based on Greater Toronto Hockey League penalty and suspension data, showed incidents of "discriminatory slurs" have increased 10-fold in the past three years.

In the 2006-07 season there were only nine penalties called all season for discriminatory slurs. Two years ago there were 47. Last year: 96.

In one case, a 14-year-old labelled an opposing player with this verbal attack: "Shouldn't you be out blowing up buildings or something?"

The player had 15 major penalties since 2003 and was assessed a three-game suspension.

In a GTHL game featuring 16-year-olds last January, a Toronto Avalanche player called the opposing goaltender a "dumb f---ing Jew," according to a league investigation report on the incident.

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It was the aggressor's 14th major penalty between 2005 and 2008. He received a three-game suspension – the league's standard response to the offence.

With files from Lois Kalchman