“Several students participating on a sport team used inappropriate and racist slurs directly toward another teammate,’’ Zielinski wrote in the posting, which does not indicate when the incident happened other than to note that it took place “recently.”

School Superintendent Elizabeth Zielinski posted an account of the incident and the response by her administration, which includes referring the information to Wrentham police, one of three communities that are part of the regional school system. She notified parents of the incident in an e-mail on Monday.

Athletes at King Philip Regional High School were disciplined and investigated by police for allegedly using racist language against a fellow student, and for telephoning the victim’s mother and making sexually explicit comments to her, a school official said.


“In addition, the students obtained the student-victim’s mother’s phone number and shared it with other students,’’ the superintendent wrote. “Several students called the victim’s mother’s phone repeatedly and those calls included inappropriate sexual comments toward the victim’s mother.”

Zielinski said the administration launched an investigation and also notified Wrentham and State Police “since the actions of these students can be considered a hate crime.”

The students involved have been barred from participating in some games and also suspended from school, she wrote. Her posting does not identify the sports team involved.

Zielinski, in her posting insisted that “this type of behavior is completely unacceptable and will not be tolerated in our school community. It not only violates the policies of the King Philip Regional School District, it creates an unwelcoming and hostile environment for our students and families.”

She said the regional school has now created a “cultural proficiency group” to improve the district’s “ability to address racism and understand the complex issues involved in race relations in our school.” She urged students and parents to become involved in the process.


“We want to learn and embrace our differences to better understand ourselves and the world where our students will soon be employed,’’ she wrote. “If we do not publicly address these issues, then we as a community will be complicit and remain a part of the problem rather than the solution.”

According to the Department of Education, King Philip has 1,320 students; 93.5 percent are white, 1.3 percent are black, 1.7 percent are Asian, 1.5 percent are Hispanic, and 1.9 percent are “multi race.”

Emily Sweeney can be reached at esweeney@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @emilysweeney. John R. Ellement can be reached at ellement@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @JREbosglobe.