The Diocese of Green Bay, Wis., has apologized to the family of an aboriginal Catholic school student who was reprimanded for speaking in her native language during class and to the Menominee Nation, the tribe to which the student's family belongs.

The Feb. 22 apologies followed an incident Jan. 19 in which 12-year-old Miranda Washinawatok, a seventh-grader at Sacred Heart School in Shawano, was suspended from playing in a basketball game at her school because of the classroom reprimand.

Joseph Bound, director of the diocesan department of education, said the situation has revealed the need for cultural diversity training, not only at Sacred Heart School, but at all Catholic schools in the Green Bay Diocese.