North County High School issues apology following livestream comments about Battle

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Officials at North County High School are apologizing for comments made by a student about Battle athletes after a live video stream of a Friday football game.

During a student-led stream of Friday's football game at North County, derogatory remarks were made about Battle and its players. The student claimed the Spartans "gets kids from really rough situations and puts them in a school" and would later refer to the program as a "violent team."

North County High School posted an apology on its Facebook page from UniTec Career Center Director Jeff Cauley. Career center students ran the stream. Cauley said the comments were "inappropriate and unacceptable."

"We strive to provide a positive atmosphere at all student and community events," the message says. "Unfortunately, this incident is not indicative of those expectations. We are very sorry if these statements offended anyone and plan to use this unfortunate incident as an opportunity to teach all of our students about how words and misinformation can have a negative impact on the perception of others."

Battle Athletics said in a statement posted to its Twitter page that the student's comments were indicative of a wider, societal issue.

"We seek to use this as an opportunity to grow as a community and society and shed light on the damaging impacts of implicit bias," the statement reads. "Implicit bias, and words associated with it, can have negative and detrimental effects even when malice is not intended."

The original comments said by the North County student can be heard here: