Hockey social secs banned permanently after string of vile tweets

Two of York’s hockey club social secretaries have been banned permanently following a number of racist and sexist tweets.

The other two social secs have been removed from their committee positions and banned from the social side of the club until further review.

The shocking tweets included:

•  The description of how a member loved “stabbing black people”

• “I’m going to Hindu hell aka Al-Qaeda.”

• “Why would you have morales with objects? #women.” [sic]

• “you think your iniatation is over! I may just rape her”.

The Presidents sent round and email also detailing that two other people have also been banned, but it’s unsure who.

The members could be banned for the entire year, or reinstated after Christmas.

The tweets, uncovered by Vision, were issued from a private account and made sickening racist and sexist remarks, including rape jokes.

The initials of the individual quoted in each tweet appears next to each statement.

The four secretaries with access to the Twitter account have since deleted their Facebooks.

Hockey presidents Hermione and Tiernan have been quick to issue an apology disaffiliating the account with the official team:

“We strongly believe that the private account was not created to upset or offend anyone and although on several occasions we asked the private account to tone down the content of their tweets, this has not happened,” they said.

“The statements on this account are wholly unacceptable and the account has been shut down and action will be taken against the responsible parties.

“We want to give our sincerest apologies that this has happened. The views of four of our members by no means represents the views of the club, but as a club we will try our hardest to rectify the situation and move forward together.”

581 tweets were sent from @UyhcSocSecs which was run by the club’s social secretaries.

The account was created in May and set to private on Sunday night. Both that account, the club’s official Twitter account  and the club’s Facebook page have been deleted.
The University of York Hockey Club would like to release a statement with regards to the recently closed down twitter account:

The Hockey Club released this statement:

“The University of York Hockey Club would like to sincerely apologise for the twitter account set up by our Social Secretaries. In no way was the hockey club affiliated with or in any way endorsed the account.

“The tweets are wholly unacceptable and do not reflect or represent the opinions or views held by the Hockey Club.

“We have removed two Social Secretaries permanently from the Hockey Club and have removed the two other Social Secretaries from the committee and banned them from the social side of the club until further review.

“All Official UYHC Social media platforms have been disabled until a full review has been carried out to ensure they will be continually closely monitored to prevent a situation like this occurring again. We are now waiting on the decision of the University disciplinary panel.

“We apologise to any groups that these tweets have offended. We cannot express how deeply sorry and embarrassed we are of the actions of a few of our members.

“This year we have worked extremely hard on sustaining and improving the welcoming and friendly atmosphere of the club and hope to build up our reputation once again within the University.”

A spokesperson for the uni said: “The statements on this account are wholly unacceptable. In consultation with the University, YUSU is conducting an investigation with a view to disciplinary action against the individuals responsible and, potentially, the club.”