Around New England

Legislators Condemn Duxbury Football’s Use Of Anti-Semitic Audibles

March 24, 2021

In light of news that the Duxbury High football team has been using anti-Semitic words as audibles in games — for potentially years — a bipartisan group of state legislators who represent the area put out a statement condemning it.

The town’s superintendent confirmed on Tuesday that Duxbury uses words with negative associations with Jews, including “Auschwitz.” Players got caught doing so internally during a March 12 game and were without their head coach Dave Maimaron in their March 19 bout against Silver Lake as a result. However, this was not made public until Monday of this week, as NBC Boston points out.

Here is what state Senator Patrick O’Connor (R-Weymouth), state Representative Josh Cutler (D-Pembroke), and state Representative Kathy LaNatra (D-Kingston) said in a joint statement on the matter:

“We wish to add our voices to those of Prejudice Free Duxbury and others in strongly condemning anti-Semitic, racist or hateful speech. Words have the power to heal, and to hurt, and it’s clear that the anti-Semitic remarks reported this week at a Duxbury High football game have caused a great deal of hurt. There is simply no place for this. We all aspire for our communities to be safe and welcoming for everyone, and it is clear that, collectively, we still have more work to be done.”

Duxbury’s game scheduled against Hingham for Friday, March 26 got postponed as a result of the news becoming public. That’s the case despite the team playing last Friday night without head coach Dave Maimaron on the sidelines — before this news went public, as Boston.com points out.

On Wednesday afternoon, Duxbury fired Maimaron as their head football coach.

As for his position as a special education teacher at Duxbury High, the town’s superintendent John Antonucci told NewBostonPost in an email message on Wednesday afternoon, “He is on paid administrative leave from his teaching position, pending further investigation.”