I thought people were better than this especially my so called “friends” pic.twitter.com/8yD9h7YZE2
— 7 (@WarriorTy7) October 16, 2017
A group of white teenage girls–cheerleaders–at a high school in Utah are being investigated for a video in which they appear to take turns screaming the phrase “fuck [n-word]s” directly into the camera.
In the video, most of the girls repeat the phrase at least twice. Some of them scream it out in unison. Their faces are expressive and they seem to be expressing joy at the constant repetition of the long-verboten racial slur and put-down. Altogether, the phrase is repeated six times in the 10-second clip.
The racially-charged video began making its way across social media earlier this week after it was uploaded to Facebook and Instagram. It’s already achieved virality and has been viewed tens of thousands of times as of this writing.
The girls in the video attend Weber High School in Pleasant View, Utah. In a statement released yesterday, the Weber School District noted:
We are shocked by the conduct of these students and the contents of the video. School officials have started an investigation and the matter is being taken very seriously. We are trying to determine when the video was made, where it was filmed, why the students would engage in such conduct, and how the clip ended up on social media.
The results of that investigation immediately turned up the following information: the video was taken last year; while the students were on fall break; and the students were apparently not involved in a school-related function at the time.
Administrators appear to be caught off-guard and horrified and released a second statement yesterday, which read, in part:
We understand this is a very sensitive matter and it has invoked a lot of strong emotional response [sic] from people all over the world. There is no excuse for these girl’s [sic] action. With that being said, neither shouldn’t [sic] there be justification for threats toward them and their families. Hatred only breeds more hatred. These are teenagers who made a big mistake, and they will be held accountability [sic]. Please be patient and reasonable as we deal with this situation.
The school district’s investigation also suggests that the girls recorded gibberish into an app which was played backwards to produce the offending phrase.
As the investigation is still ongoing, the students in question have not been punished yet, but administrators with the Weber School District said that loss of cheerleading privileges and expulsion are both on the table.
[image via screengrab]
Follow Colin Kalmbacher on Twitter: @colinkalmbacher
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