Students at a high school in North Texas were criticized by administrators and elected leaders after appearing in a racist video that was recently posted on Snapchat.
The video shows several teenagers loudly shouting the n-word on numerous occasions while riding in a car with music playing in the background. One student says:
Oh my god! Yes! I can say [n-word] more!
Another student reacts to her exclamation and lets loose a steady stream of the same offending word. That video was quickly shared across social networks and soon went viral–prompting other students to complain to school officials.
According to local ABC affiliate WFAA, the Carroll Independent School District (ISD) on Wednesday confirmed that two of the students involved were from the district itself. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram later clarified that only one of the students appearing in the video itself was a Carroll Southlake student and that the other Carroll Southlake student was the driver–who is not seen in the video.
A Facebook post from Carroll ISD elaborated on the situation:
We were notified by some of our students last night about another inappropriate video with racial slurs shared by local students on social media. Because of the disruption to the educational environment, our campus administrators have already taken steps to consistently apply the Student Code of Conduct to the extent allowable under the law. We are acting swiftly and consistently; behavior that involves derogatory speech that targets individuals or groups of individuals for their ethnicity, race, religion, sexual orientation or disabilities will not be tolerated in Carroll ISD.
The school district’s statement continued with an emphatic message against the language contained in the video.
“Racism is not welcome in Carroll ISD or in Southlake,” the post said. “It is a world problem. We believe it is also a heart problem.”
“This tone that a very few children are bringing into the school is coming from outside the school,” Southlake Mayor Laura Hill told the local Fox affiliate. “So parents have got to look at themselves and say, ‘What are we talking about at our home? What are we saying? What are we watching? Are we having hard conversations with our kids?’”
Hill also addressed Southlake at large in a statement addressed to parents.
“[These students are] about to go to college and get jobs and actually impact the world through their culture,” she said. “I am at a loss for words, at least words that are becoming a mayor. I will not allow this to become a beat down on Southlake again, but I am going to say, parents we had better wake the heck up.”
“We are sad, we are angry this has happened again,” Southlake Carroll Assistant Superintendent Julie Thannum told the Star-Telegram.
Thannum was referring to a separate racist video–and resulting media firestorm–involving Southlake Carroll students last October.
As Law&Crime reported at the time, several white teenagers–mostly girls–chanted the n-word repeatedly in the October video. At the end of footage, one the girls mimics an accent and says, “We up on that black shit.” Those students were later disciplined by school administrators. The details of their punishment were not disclosed to the media.
“I’ve got to tell you, it’s discouraging,” Thannum later told WFAA. “Angry, sad, lots of range of emotions. Disappointed.”
[image via screengrab]
