The boys and girls varsity basketball teams at Mendocino High School in Northern California were uninvited from a tournament when many players refused to promise they would not wear shirts reading "I can't breathe" during warm-up. The shirts reference the last words of Eric Garner, the black man who died when he was put in a chokehold by New York City Police after being caught selling cigarettes.
Similar shirts have been worn by professional athletes to protest Garner's death and the lack of legal consequences for the police who killed him. Though the Mendocino teams have worn the shirts at previous games without incident, the school officials responsible for removing them for the tournament said the decision was made for the students' own safety.