‘OCD’ chant directed at 8th grade basketball star, MN reports say. ‘She’s just a kid’
An eighth grade basketball player received “OCD” chants during a game by students from an opposing team, Minnesota reports say.
The chants were reportedly directed at Chloe Johnson, a star basketball player at Duluth Marshall High School. Chloe has openly shared her obsessive-compulsive disorder diagnosis.
Greg Johnson, the student’s father, said fans from the Crosby-Ironton High School section were chanting “OCD” at his daughter during a March 6 game.
“Chloe is a strong kid, but she’s just a kid,” Johnson said. “It took a lot of strength for her to be vulnerable and share her story, but she wanted to. Chloe’s life was significantly changed by somebody else sharing their story and she wanted to pay that forward. To help others the way she had been helped. I simply don’t understand how people would choose to ridicule her.”
Four Crosby-Ironton students were disciplined, school principal Jennifer Strom told KQDS, but it’s unclear what actions were taken. The principal said in a statement the school’s “students will do better moving forward.”
Crosby-Ironton Superintendent Jamie Skjeveland also provided a statement, telling Bring Me The News the district “will not tolerate this type of conduct.”
A user of X, formerly Twitter, called the students’ chants “heartbreaking to hear”
“Chloe, you were so brave to share your story!” @le_vearne said in the post. “And for the hundreds and thousands of people you have touched and helped through that story, there is only a very small percentage of uneducated and cruel people who would think a chant like this is appropriate.”
Johnson went public about her battles with OCD in a January interview with the Star Tribune.
In a follow-up story from Northern News Now, Johnson said basketball has comforted her through her diagnosis.
“When I’m on the court, that mostly just all goes away. It’s a nice break from it all,” she told the news outlet. “ When I play, it’s like my safe spot in life.”
Just an eighth-grader, Johnson is already a decorated high school basketball star. In January, she reached 1,000 points for her high school career, becoming the third player in state history to achieve that mark in eighth grade, according to KQDS.
She has received scholarship offers from top collegiate programs, including Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa, according to Bring Me The News. Johnson was recently named to the Minnesota All-State Team, as voted on by coaches in the state.
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