A tweet, that has since been deleted, made on a St. John Vianney’s High School girls soccer team account has caused anger with some Neptune High School parents. Saint John Vianney, located in Holmdel, played Neptune girls’ soccer Thursday morning in a pre-season scrimmage.
The tweet encouraged students to come to the Holmdel game: “Everyone come support the team home @ 10:00 for our first scrimmage vs. Neptune! #bringyourshanks #give5”
It was the term “shanks” that stuck out to some Neptune parents, finding the word offensive. Erica Keriwin, a mother of two daughters on the varsity team, told the Patch:
“When you shank someone, you’re in prison and you take a knife and stab them, it’s pretty clear,” she told Patch. “Look, I know all about high school sports rivalries. This goes beyond that. They’re either trying to say we’re a bunch of thugs or they’re saying they’re going to bring shanks to the game, which is not OK.”
Kerwin furthered went on to say :
“We get a bad rap being Neptune,” continued Kerwin. “And let me just say if the Neptune soccer team or Asbury Park soccer team had written that tweet, the police would be boarding our bus the second we got back from the game. It’s just not a very Christian thing to write. If this is a Catholic school, these are not the right values. And I was raised Catholic!”
The tweet was deleted after online backlash Thursday.
St. John Vianney’s athletic director, Richard Lamberson, said the twitter is most likely run by students and he’s working with Neptune on the matter:
“This Twitter account is not a school-sanctioned account and I’m going to be looking into who runs it,” Lamberson told Patch. “We are 100 percent looking into this situation. I’m in communication with Neptune’s athletic director over this and I’ve already contacted our soccer coaching staff. I’m going to be meeting with the girls’ soccer team first thing Friday morning.”
