School bans 'I Can't Breathe' shirts at tournament

A high school basketball tournament on the Northern California coast has become the latest flash-point in the ongoing protests over police killings of unarmed black men after a school was uninvited because of concerns its players would wear T-shirts printed with the words "I Can't Breathe" during warm-ups.

The athletic director at Fort Bragg High School informed his counterpart at Mendocino High School this week that neither the boys nor girls team would be allowed to participate in the three-day tournament hosted by Fort Bragg High starting Monday, Mendocino Unified School District Superintendent Jason Morse said.

The boys were reinstated after all but one player agreed not to wear the shirts inspired by the last words of Eric Garner, the New York man who died after an officer put him in a choke-hold, while on the Fort Bragg campus during the Vern Piver Holiday Classic tournament, Morse said. Too few girl players accepted the condition for the team to field a tournament squad, he said.

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