“Embarrassed” High School Football Coach Suspends Players For Posting Video Of Burning Pride Flag [VIDEO]

Salt Lake City’s Fox affiliate reports:

Two students have been indefinitely suspended from the Kearns High football team for a social media post showing a Pride flag being burned and threatening LGBTQ people. A player posted a video on Snapchat last week where someone lights an LGBTQ Pride flag on fire and laughs. Someone in the video is heard saying “all gays die.”

Granite School District officials are determining the proper punishment, which could include community service or school suspension for the student who posted the video and another who reposted it. “There’s no place for that in our program at all, and it won’t be tolerated,” said Matt Rickards, the team’s head coach. “It’s potentially a hate crime, so it sickens me.”

ABC News reports:

The Granite School District in Northern Utah asked police to open an investigation this week as the controversial Snapchat video sparked outrage on social media, school officials told ABC News on Tuesday. Granite School District spokesman Ben Horsley said the district opened an independent investigation immediately and notified local police.

“We are having police look at it to ensure that there is no criminal implications,” Horsley told ABC News in an interview on Tuesday. “Looking at the video, whether if it was intended as a joke or as a serious and broad threat against LGBTQ individuals, it’s still a reprehensible act. We need to condemn hatred and bigotry wherever we see it.”