Scoop27
02-27-2018, 04:39 PM
From the Victoria Advocate
Manny Perez went to the San Marcos tournament to watch a relative play baseball.
But what Perez saw in Victoria East’s game against Hays Consolidated on Friday shocked him.
Perez watched an East player lying in front of the dugout with what looked like a bat shaped like a rifle pretending to shoot the Hays players on the field.
“What really disturbed me is the kid was lying flat on the ground in front of the dugout,” Perez said. “He was in front of the coaches, the umpires and all of the public. He was lying on the ground pointing his mock AR-15 in the direction of the field of the opposing team, who happened to be playing defense at the time. There was another young man standing next to him, and there’s two blue bottles wrapped in a pink strap, and they were using those as binoculars. It appeared to be like a spotter, and the kid with the mock AR-15 would recoil like an action after shooting his shot.”
Perez, a retired U.S. Border Patrol agent, went to the home plate umpire to report what he had seen but said no action was taken.
“The young man continued to come back out laying on the ground (and) continued to do the same thing or stand in the dugout and continued to do the same thing,” Perez said. “A parent and myself approached the tournament director and told him what was happening. He went to the dugout to tell the coach and the kids to get that thing the hell out of the dugout. It wasn’t until they made a pitching change that the director finally approached the coach.”
A friend of Perez’s took pictures of the student holding the mock rifle and posted them on Facebook.
Perez, who lives in Del Rio but also has a summer cabin in Port Lavaca, emailed Victoria East and called and left a message with the University Interscholastic League about what he had seen.
“I’m not trying to make a stand,” he said. “It disturbs me. This is not about me. It’s about the safety of the students, the players. There was no security at the tournament. On Thursday, the school (San Marcos) had locked down so they could rehearse what could happen in case of an event.”
Perez returned to the tournament Saturday and said he did not see the fake rifle in the East dugout.
Kate Hector, media coordinator for the UIL, said any complaints about what occurred outside the normal scope of an athletic event would go to the UIL’s compliance officer, who would then forward an incident report form to the school or the district executive committee.
Victoria East head coach Wes Kolle referred comments about the incident to VISD athletic director Leonard McAngus.
“We take this very seriously,” McAngus said. “We want to do the right thing. We are addressing this now and moving on. We want to make sure our kids and coaches are more sensitive about how they conduct themselves.”
McAngus said any punishment would be handled in-house but did release a response he sent to Perez in which he apologized on behalf of the school district.
“The behavior you witnessed this past weekend was inappropriate and was in no way representative of the beliefs, values and expectations of our school district,” the response stated in part. “We want to express to you that we take the concern you have brought forward extremely seriously, and we are taking swift action so that this type of behavior does not take place in the future.”
Perez said he did not want to get anyone in trouble but was concerned for the students’ overall safety.
“I just can’t believe this all happened after all this in Florida,” Perez said. “As a federal agent, I feel responsible to report something like this. I know what could have happened that day if somebody had mistaken that mock AR-15 for a real rifle.”
Manny Perez went to the San Marcos tournament to watch a relative play baseball.
But what Perez saw in Victoria East’s game against Hays Consolidated on Friday shocked him.
Perez watched an East player lying in front of the dugout with what looked like a bat shaped like a rifle pretending to shoot the Hays players on the field.
“What really disturbed me is the kid was lying flat on the ground in front of the dugout,” Perez said. “He was in front of the coaches, the umpires and all of the public. He was lying on the ground pointing his mock AR-15 in the direction of the field of the opposing team, who happened to be playing defense at the time. There was another young man standing next to him, and there’s two blue bottles wrapped in a pink strap, and they were using those as binoculars. It appeared to be like a spotter, and the kid with the mock AR-15 would recoil like an action after shooting his shot.”
Perez, a retired U.S. Border Patrol agent, went to the home plate umpire to report what he had seen but said no action was taken.
“The young man continued to come back out laying on the ground (and) continued to do the same thing or stand in the dugout and continued to do the same thing,” Perez said. “A parent and myself approached the tournament director and told him what was happening. He went to the dugout to tell the coach and the kids to get that thing the hell out of the dugout. It wasn’t until they made a pitching change that the director finally approached the coach.”
A friend of Perez’s took pictures of the student holding the mock rifle and posted them on Facebook.
Perez, who lives in Del Rio but also has a summer cabin in Port Lavaca, emailed Victoria East and called and left a message with the University Interscholastic League about what he had seen.
“I’m not trying to make a stand,” he said. “It disturbs me. This is not about me. It’s about the safety of the students, the players. There was no security at the tournament. On Thursday, the school (San Marcos) had locked down so they could rehearse what could happen in case of an event.”
Perez returned to the tournament Saturday and said he did not see the fake rifle in the East dugout.
Kate Hector, media coordinator for the UIL, said any complaints about what occurred outside the normal scope of an athletic event would go to the UIL’s compliance officer, who would then forward an incident report form to the school or the district executive committee.
Victoria East head coach Wes Kolle referred comments about the incident to VISD athletic director Leonard McAngus.
“We take this very seriously,” McAngus said. “We want to do the right thing. We are addressing this now and moving on. We want to make sure our kids and coaches are more sensitive about how they conduct themselves.”
McAngus said any punishment would be handled in-house but did release a response he sent to Perez in which he apologized on behalf of the school district.
“The behavior you witnessed this past weekend was inappropriate and was in no way representative of the beliefs, values and expectations of our school district,” the response stated in part. “We want to express to you that we take the concern you have brought forward extremely seriously, and we are taking swift action so that this type of behavior does not take place in the future.”
Perez said he did not want to get anyone in trouble but was concerned for the students’ overall safety.
“I just can’t believe this all happened after all this in Florida,” Perez said. “As a federal agent, I feel responsible to report something like this. I know what could have happened that day if somebody had mistaken that mock AR-15 for a real rifle.”