School district officials did not release specifics, but the penalties follow reports of racial taunting at a Lowell High School game last spring.
Sep 1, 2026
Updated 3:23 pm PT
The San Francisco Unified School District Administrative Offices on April 18, 2025. Lowell High School’s baseball team must forfeit games and lose its entire coaching staff after an incident during a game. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)
Lowell High School’s varsity baseball team must forfeit three games during the upcoming spring season, after an investigation by the San Francisco school district’s athletic conference found that an incident during last year’s junior varsity championship violated multiple rules.
San Francisco Unified School District said Monday that it has also removed the team’s entire coaching staff, all of whom have been on leave since May when reports emerged of unsportsmanlike conduct.
The San Francisco Chronicle said at the time that the conduct occurred at Lowell’s junior varsity championship game against Lincoln High School, where varsity coaches were reportedly present when “alleged race-based taunting by Lowell’s varsity players” occurred.
This is the first year that Lowell High School offered ethnic studies. (Wikimedia Commons)
The district has not provided details about the incident, which the Chronicle’s May report attributed to inside sources.
Last week, the San Francisco Academic Athletic Conference informed school administrators that its investigation of the incident found that Lowell baseball violated multiple bylaws having to do with sportsmanship expectations, rooting section requirements and hazing policy.
As a result of the findings, the school district’s governing body for sports determined that Lowell will forfeit the first game of each of three double-headers next spring against local rivals Lincoln High School, Galileo Academy and Washington High School — teams that finished second through fourth in the league last season.
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie speaks during Jose Ortega Elementary School’s first morning circle of the school year on Aug. 17, 2026, in San Francisco. (Miles Cull/KQED)
District officials required Lowell players to engage in relearning the sports code of conduct and held discussions on “being upstanders” when there is bullying or harassment.
The district said individual players took accountability for their individual actions. All players will be required to complete implicit bias and bullying and hazing training before the start of the spring season.
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie said Tuesday that he was aware of the incident and planned to follow up with the school, but that “it sounds like Lowell did the right thing.”
“There should be no tolerance of hatred, for those types of remarks, that type of behavior,” Lurie said during an unrelated press conference.
KQED’s Jose Velazquez contributed to this report.