From key player to cut. Noah Dasgupta's family would like answers from Cascade
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Noah Dasgupta led the Cascade High School baseball team in wins, strikeouts and innings pitched as a junior, and threw 600 more pitches than his next-closest teammate.
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A year later, Dasgupta is not playing high school baseball. Cascade, a rural school of about 546 students located about 30 miles southwest of Indianapolis.
Dasgupta was cut from the team at Cascade on the first day of practice as a senior. It is a decision Dasgupta’s family did not see coming.
Since getting cut from the team, Dasgupta said he has dealt with cyberbullying and been called a racist slur, leading to a feeling of unease around school as an outsider who is no longer part of a team that served as the one of the main reasons he decided to attend the school.
The administration and coaches at Cascade declined to comment beyond an email from superintendent Brian Tomamichel that addressed the alleged racial misconduct in an email to IndyStar.
"Mill Creek Community Schools takes all reports of alleged racial misconduct or bullying between students very seriously," Tomamichel said via email. "We are committed to providing a safe, respectful, and inclusive learning environment for every student. Any claim brought forward is promptly reviewed and investigated in accordance with Board policy and Indiana law."
Dasgupta, who transferred into the Cascade school system from Avon as a freshman, was a key part of its team for his first three high school seasons. Dasgupta, of Asian-Indian heritage, said he was used to being around kids that look like him. When he arrived at Cascade he said he experienced a bit of a culture shock, but the older members of the baseball team embraced him.
Now Dasgupta said he feels unsafe at school and is taking half of his courses remotely.
"It was the first day of practice when I got cut,” Dasgupta said. “So my dad came in to talk to (coach Ty Foster) because, obviously, we had no idea what was going on. That’s when Foster used that word specifically; he said that I was being flashy.
"If you had a problem with my chains, or the way I dress, or any of that, I wish you would have said it to me four years ago and not at that time. It made no sense to me.”
Dasgupta said he was cut from the team on March 16, the first day the Indiana High School Athletic Association allows teams to hold baseball practice.
Three days later, Dasgupta, his father, Jay, and stepmother Brandi Herbert had a meeting with Foster, Tomamichel and principal Jeff Hansel to discuss why Noah was no longer on the team.
According to Dasgupta, Foster pointed to instances of him not being a team player and arguing with teammates during winter workouts as reasons for his dismissal. Dasgupta said Foster cut him because he was “too flashy.” Foster, according to Dasgupta, said that he did not agree with the way he wore his hat angled to the side, wore multiple necklaces during games and displayed emotion on the mound.
Dasgupta said the winter workout in question was just typical competitive banter between teammates and during his prior talks with Foster about how he dressed or his attitude, the potential of his dismissal from the team was never discussed.
It appears to be out of the norm for Cascade to cut players from the team. Foster told Herbert during their meeting to discuss why Dasgupta was no longer on the team that Noah is the only player to be cut during his time in the program. In an email to IndyStar, Tomamichel said “the district is unable to provide a comment due to student confidentiality laws.”
Foster, Tomamichel and Hansel all declined further comment when contacted by the IndyStar.
Dasgupta said the treatment he has received since being cut from the team highlights a culture within the school and baseball program where he — one of the few non-white students in the school — has dealt with harassment and discrimination because of his race. All but about 7% of students are white, according to U.S. News & World Report.
In early April, Dasgupta reported an incident between himself and another Cascade student where he was called a racist slur. Tomamichel said that because there was no audio evidence of the incident, the school could not pursue disciplinary actions against the student.
In a follow-up email from Hansel to Dasgupta's father and stepmother the principal wrote, "We recognize the seriousness of the concern that was raised. I reviewed the video footage from the provided date and time and did not observe an altercation between Noah and another student. After speaking with Noah, it was still difficult to clearly identify the individual involved through the video; however, he did indicate a student who may have been involved. I followed up with that student directly, and the concerns were addressed."
The Dasguptas said to their knowledge, there has still been no discipline of the student who allegedly used the slur. In addition to in-person bullying, Dasgupta has experienced cyberbullying.
In photos obtained by IndyStar, an Instagram account called cascadefridaybeers sent messages to Dasgupta threatening to get his college baseball scholarship to Rio Grande University in Ohio revoked and said several members of the Cascade baseball team "own" him. The account is not affiliated with Cascade but does have the school's logo as its profile picture.
Hansel said the messages did not come from school-issued devices and that school "remains committed to monitoring and addressing any activity that occurs within the school setting to the extent that we are able."
More than one month into the baseball season, the Dasguptas are still searching for answers. They want to know what specific criteria the senior failed to reach that merited his removal from the team, and they want detailed information on the review process or subsequent investigations around their bullying and harassment claims.
"All I wanted to do was play baseball my senior year," Noah Dasgupta said. "I wanted to finish out what had been a really good career for me at Cascade. That's all I wanted to do, was play baseball, and they denied me that chance."
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Noah Dasgupta was one of Cascade's top baseball players. A year later, cut from team