Lincoln High School varsity cheerleaders on Wednesday stood ready, hands on hips as they practiced their routines on the track that surrounds the school’s football field.

The mood among the young women was decidedly lighter than it was a week ago, when they were allegedly subjected to racial taunts and slurs while attending a game at a rival school in Orange County.

The comments directed at the cheerleaders from both adults and students at the San Clemente High School football game reportedly included calling them “n.....”, telling them they needed to be put on leashes and asking them if they were from the ghetto.

It was an unsettling and traumatic experience for the students, one they are still trying to understand.


“I’m getting over it, but it still hurts,” said sophomore Yazmine Sua-Sanchez, 15.

Sua-Sanchez and other members of the cheer team who met with The San Diego Union-Tribune say they want a personal apology from the principal of San Clemente High School and an acknowledgment of what they experienced.

“A lot of people don’t think that we should get an apology because they think it’s nothing,” said sophomore Zakarrah Cochran, 15. “We should have the principal come out here and apologize. Even if (he) didn’t do anything, (he) should still apologize for the people in (his) crowd and their actions.”

Both the Capistrano Unified School District and Lincoln High School said they are conducting investigationsof the allegations from Friday’s game. Neither offered comment Thursday on the status of those investigations.


According to state education data, Lincoln High’s enrollment in 2018-19 was 19 percent African American, 70 percent Hispanic and 3 percent white. San Clemente High was 62.6 percent white.

Chris Carter, principal at San Clemente High, released a letter on Sunday saying he was “deeply concerned” by the allegations.

At Wednesday’s cheer practice, Lincoln High cheerleaders said they fear there will be no repercussions for the students and adults who taunted them during the football game.

“I don’t even think there is anything they can do, like what can they do?” varsity cheerleader La Ren Daniel, 15, asked. “We don’t know their names, we can’t remember what they looked like.”


Coach Shay Ronna said the visitor side, where Lincoln fans and the cheer team were, did not have permanent restrooms or a concession stand.

The cheer coaches instructed the team to travel in groups if they needed to use the restroom or get a snack from the home side of the field.

Ronna coaches the varsity team, which was cheering at Friday’s game. She said there are 25 girls on the team ages 13 to 17.

She said at least 10 cheerleaders were directly affected by the incident. Eight spoke with The San Diego Union-Tribune.


Ronna said she learned of the alleged racial slurs and taunting after half-time when some of the girls returned from the San Clemente side.

Head coach Tisha Rogers said she alerted David Fai, Lincoln athletic director, but she did not personally speak with San Clemente administrators.

Coaches and Lincoln High administrators present at the game decided to take the girls home minutes before the game ended. The cheer team was escorted to the bus by the coaches.

“Just to see the whole bus so somber was kind of eerie,” Ronna said. “I felt defeated with them.”


Ronna shared the allegations over the weekend on the team’s Instagram page. She wrote that her cheerleaders were called the “n-word” and told they needed to be put on leashes.

Sua-Sanchez said she was headed to the restroom with her teammates when a group of middle school and high school students approached them. She said they were dressed in western outfits for the football game’s theme.

“They booed at us and then they called us a bunch of n-----,” Sua-Sanchez said, adding that the most shocking aspect of the incident was that they were young students close to her age.

The students reported that taunts did not only come from students on the home side of the field but also from adults.


Delainey Buenrostro, a junior, said she was approached by an older woman dressed in San Clemente High school colors who asked her where she was from. Buenrostro, 15, said she was from San Diego and the lady responded with “From the ghetto right?”

“I just said, ‘I guess,’” Buenrostro said.

Kennedy Harris, 15, said on her way out of the restroom a boy asked what color she was. Harris said she was not sure if he was referring to school colors because she was wearing her uniform, but said she felt uncomfortable.

Karla Baylis, mother of a Lincoln cheerleader, said her daughter came home crying after the game.


Baylis did not attend Friday’s game. She said the experience was traumatizing for her 16-year-old daughter Kaylana McClinton, a junior.

In a previous interview, Destinee Renee McNeal, Lincoln High senior, said she was walking the mascot to the bathroom when a passerby said she belonged on a leash.

McNeal, 17, is not on the cheer team but attended Friday’s game because she is a member of Lincoln’s associated student body and was tasked with helping with the mascot’s costume.

She said she didn’t want to entertain the girl’s comment and decided to walk away.


Ronna said her team and other students did not respond to the taunts.

“My girls were very mature the way that they handled that situation,” Ronna said. “They had the maturity to let us know what was going on.”

A group of local community leaders called for an apology from San Clemente High on Monday during a press conference. The students said they have not received an apology.

The Orange County Sheriff’s Department issued a statement on Sept. 16 that deputies present at the game said there was no mention of “inappropriate language or hate speech.”