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After Tuesday night’s loss to Tennessee for the last home game of the year, an unfortunate incident took place as a Kentucky fan used a racial slur towards a Volunteer fan on her way out of Rupp Arena. She was captured on multiple videos that have now been circulating on social media and the news over the last two days.
After announcing last night that a punishment was coming, UK Athletics director Mitch Barnhart released the school’s decision on Twitter.
We have permanently revoked ticket privileges for all UK Athletics events from the person who made the abusive remark at Tuesday night’s game, effective immediately. This misconduct is unacceptable, unwelcome at the University of Kentucky and not reflective of our values.
— Mitch Barnhart (@UKMitchBarnhart) March 5, 2020
This isn’t a surprising result as this is something that is expected to be a zero-tolerance offense. This has been a big topic of discussion since it took place, but there’s no place for behavior like that anywhere at the end of the day. It doesn’t matter when, where or how it took place. Like Barnhart said, this is unacceptable, and UK made the right call here by removing her from any and all school events.
With this all occurring right after an ugly loss, it was a pretty bad way to end Kentucky’s home season at Rupp. With this decision now made, the school can hopefully now look to get back on track and put this incident behind them.