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"I want to make sure that at the end of the day, whatever investigation is done is viewed as unbiased and objective. That's what everybody deserves."

The Sept. 17 football game between Georgetown and Roxbury Prep ended early in an altercation, with Roxbury coaches alleging the repeated use of racial slurs against their players. To get to the bottom of it, Georgetown Public Schools is hiring an independent investigator to review the events of the game.

At a Georgetown School Committee meeting on Thursday, Superintendent Carol Jacobs shared an update on the situation and answered committee and community questions. She said she reached out to Roxbury Prep, and the two parties agreed an investigation should be done. 

“As we started to do an investigation and started to collect statements, it became clear to me that it was not in our best interest to do our own investigation, for a lot of reasons,” Jacobs said. “One of which is that I want to make sure that at the end of the day, whatever investigation is done is viewed as unbiased and objective. That’s what everybody deserves. That is to protect Georgetown and that is to do due diligence to investigate whether or not the allegations are correct.”

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Though an outside investigator has not been hired as of Thursday, Jacobs said the district has narrowed it down to two candidates.

Since the football team has another game on Friday, the district made the decision to limit attendance for both teams. Only two adults per player will be allowed to attend, and no students are allowed to go. Jacobs assured concerned parents that the measure is only for Friday’s game, unless the district sees reason to extend it, and is meant to protect students, players, and families while emotions are still running high.

“This community we support, and I know from all the years I’ve lived here that you cannot find a better community,” said School Committee Chair Barbara Linares. “We come together when we need to, we stand behind our friends, family members in crisis, and that isn’t going to change. However the investigation comes out in the end, we’re still going to be the community that we’re proud of, and we just need to let things follow through.”