Gateway students removed from McKeesport game for taunts, profanity

More than 100 Gateway High School students were kicked out of a football game at McKeesport Area High School for repeatedly shouting taunts and obscenities after being told to stop, McKeesport Superintendent Mark Holtzman Jr. said Saturday.

Gateway athletic director Chuck Reilly said his students’ behavior was not as bad as McKeesport officials said.

The Gateway students were wearing surgical masks and white doctor’s outfits Friday, and shouting “Diseaseport” at their rivals, Holtzman said. He said the Gateway cheerleaders also wore masks.

“Unfortunately, last night their student section came with limited supervision, and they were quite belligerent even coming into the game,” Holtzman said.

The students repeatedly chanted profanities at the McKeesport team and fans, according to Holtzman. He asked them to stop. When they did not, he said he sent administrators and police officers to keep an eye on the section.

The chants continued, and Holzman said he made the decision to have the students escorted out of the stands.

“I didn’t want the issue to become a big issue that I couldn’t control,” he said.

Reilly said he was standing in front of the Gateway student section. He said, while there was some swearing and raucous behavior, it was not to the level described by McKeesport officials.

“I can unequivocally say it was not the whole section, because I would have heard it,” he said.

He said he accepted McKeesport’s decision, but he did not think it was warranted by his students’ behavior.

“I said it’s fine, it’s their stadium, if this is what they want to do, this is what they want to do,” Reilly said.

Holtzman said individual students have occasionally been kicked out of games, but never an entire section.

Reilly said McKeesport students were hurling insults and homophobic slurs at Gateway players.

Gateway School District will address the issue with students to improve behavior at future games, Reilly said. He said he hopes McKeesport has a similar conversation with its students.

“Absolutely we will address the behavior of our students,” he said. “My wish is that McKeespoort will address the behavior of their students, which was as bad if not worse as our fans were.”

Reilly and McKeesport athletic director Charlie Kiss agree that Gateway and McKeesport usually have a friendly rivalry, and they’d like to keep it that way.

“We were happy to see them come on over,.We’ve always had a pretty healthy, respectful rivalry with Gateway,” he said.

“This sheds a little bit of a negative light on that.”

Gateway defeated McKeesport 36-7 Friday.