WALES — Eight spectators were ejected or asked to leave a girls high school basketball game Friday at Oak Hill High School because of unruly behavior.

A video of the incident shows one adult fan leave the bleachers, step on the court and confront an official during the Oak Hill-Boothbay game. The fan, while still shouting at the officials, is then escorted out of the gymnasium by a school official.

Katy Grondin, superintendent for RSU 4, said Tuesday that three fans were ejected and five more were asked to leave the gym during the second half.

“Unfortunately, during the game, fans got intense regarding official calls, and the official asked for several fans to leave the building,” Grondin said. “Our athletic director (Jim Palmer), in support of the officials and the game moving forward, escorted folks out of the facility so that the game could resume.”

Grondin did not comment when asked what sparked the outburst in the stands.

This is not the first time unruly fans disrupted a high school basketball game in Maine this season. On Jan. 10, several fights in the stands marred the Portland-Deering boys basketball game at the Portland Expo. On Dec. 14, another video showed an altercation in the stands during a basketball game between Ashland and Easton.

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“I think it’s an ongoing thing, I don’t think it’s new (statewide),” Grondin said. “Perhaps, maybe it’s on an uptick right now. My children were in school 15-20 years ago, and I was at games where there were concerns around behavior and having security guards at games.”

Boothbay beat Oak Hill, 31-30, on Friday. Tatum French scored 19 points for the Seahawks (4-13). Mackenzie Wardwell finished with nine points for the Raiders (3-15).

Palmer said Wednesday that the incident happened “toward the end” of the game.

Grondin said she’s working with Palmer and other school officials on proactive measures to promote sportsmanship at future games, including pre-game sportsmanship announcements and signs around the gymnasium.

“Obviously it’s disappointing to see that, because I know the tradition of Oak Hill and our school department is being supportive and wanting to have good sportsmanship,” she said. “I know the athletic director has spoken personally to folks, and we’re going to keep having those conversations and putting things into place, because we also want to make sure schools that are coming to us can see that we’re taking this type of incident seriously, and we want people to feel comfortable coming to our schools to watch contests like that.

“I hope (those involved are) reflecting; we all have lessons learned, and hopefully they’ve reflected on perhaps (how) they could have handled things differently. Hopefully, they’ll be returning to be those fans we know they can be, which are positive support for our athletes and respecting our officials.”

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