Ward family accepts apology, encourages public forgiveness

NORWALK — The family of Olivia Ward reached out to the Norwalk Reflector on Thursday to address the girls basketball incident that has made local and national news.Speaking on behalf of the family, Jason Ward, Olivia's father, said they have accepted an apology from Casey Santoro and her family.During the first quarter of an SBC Lake Division game on Feb. 8 between Norwalk and Bellevue, Ward was pulled down hard to the floor by her hair by Bellevue's Casey Santoro. Though no foul was called on the play, the impact caused Ward to hit her head on the floor. A senior, Liv Ward did not return to the game and was diagnosed with a severe concussion. She was ruled out of the Truckers' final two games of the regular season, and next week's Division II sectional semifinal vs. Mansfield Senior. Video of the incident went viral, and was picked up by Cleveland and Toledo television news stations, along with national media outlets such as TMZ, the New York Post and Washington Post among others.As a result, Santoro was suspended for Tuesday's loss at Shelby and Thursday's regular season finale at Sandusky.On Wednesday, Santoro posted a public apology on Twitter, which read: "I would like to publicly apologize to Norwalk's Olivia Ward, and all basketball fans in the area for this past weekend's unfortunate incident. My intentions were never to hurt anyone. I know it's brought a lot of negative attention to our area and the game I love. I will learn from this and become a better person for it."Ward has a volleyball scholarship to NCAA Div. II Tiffin University, while Santoro has a basketball scholarship to Div. I Kent State University.Jason Ward said the Santoro family reached out to his family on Wednesday, and a face-to-face meeting would happen soon between the two families.Jason Ward's full statement provided to the Reflector, and also posted to Facebook, is below: "In regard to the incident that occurred during the Norwalk-Bellevue girls varsity basketball game on Saturday, Feb. 8.First, let me just say that, as a father, this was hard to watch happen to my child and no parent or child should ever go through something like this. Liv is recovering and my family would like to extend our deepest gratitude for all the prayers and well wishes from all of you who have reached out to us. I am pleased to let everyone know that the Santoro family has reached out to my family, directly, to extend their apologies for what occurred during Saturday's game. Their daughter has issued a public apology for her actions that day and we plan to meet up soon, father to father, player to player, kid to kid, in order for Casey to apologize in person. This event has been extremely trying, not only for Liv (especially) and my family, but for Casey and the Santoro family as well.The sheer amount of coverage regarding this matter has placed both of our families in the spotlight, not only locally, but nationally as well. This spotlight is something that both of our families want to move on from at this point. Both of our families want to put this behind us.In short, Casey Santoro has apologized, publicly, for her actions on that fateful day. Her father, Kory, has reached out to apologize to me directly, and I know that must not have been an easy thing to do. However, it was the right thing to do.Although 18, Casey is still, in essence, a kid, who is loved by her family and community. She made a mistake, which we are all guilty of at some point, and she will have to live with the ramifications of that. That being said, my family, and more importantly, Liv, does not want to see Casey's life and future ruined over this. We don't want Casey or the Santoro family to be verbally or physically assaulted, threatened or otherwise harassed due to this lapse in good judgement. However, one might view the events and subsequent video of the incident, this does not justify the hateful, threatening comments towards Casey or the Santoro family on social media.As a father, this is not something that I condone, and as a decent human being I find it disgraceful that this kid would be threatened on social media or otherwise.Did she mess up in a big way? Yes. Does she regret it? Only Casey and God know that answer. But she has apologized and Liv plans to accept her apology, as I have accepted her father, Kory's apology.If you are guilty of posting anything hateful or threatening toward this kid, please stop. Please don't do this because you think you are defending Liv. This is not helpful. This is not what Liv or my family wants.Sonja and I do our best as parents, and this is a chance to for us and our family to forgive someone, however hard it may be, which we have done and will do in person very soon.Some may not agree with our decision, and that's OK. Some might seek revenge for what happened, but we will not. Some might want to ruin this kids life forever for what occurred. Liv and our family do not.Liv said to me, "Dad, I know how hard I have worked to get where I am at and set myself up for the future, I know that Casey has worked just as hard, and I don't want to see her to lose everything over this." Those are Liv's words, not mine.This is Liv, this is my family.Thanks for taking the time to read this. Thanks, sincerely, for your support of Liv and my family. Much love to you all."