Two Missouri parents are currently in arms against the Webster Groves School District to implement a uniform penalty for bullying, demeaning language, or harassment after their children, who are Black, were sent a racist meme by a white classmate.
What We Know:
- According to CNN, the district advised that the two eighth graders at Hixson Middle School were at lunch on February 27 when they were sent a meme via Airdrop with a photograph of a white man spraying a young black child with a hose. Superimposed on the image was the phrase: “Go be a n***er somewhere else,” according to the father of one of the students, Shaun Swearengen, who posted it on Facebook.
- “Upon learning of what has reportedly happened, the school’s administrators responded immediately,” the School District’s Superintendent John Simpson said in a statement.
- “I’ve been crying on and off all day, all night … every time I see the picture I just immediately start crying because I just can’t believe someone would think that was OK to send to my child,” Yolanda Morris, the mother of one of the 14-year-old victims said.
- While Swearengen and Morris are thankful at how the school responded, they now demand district-wide changes to how racist incidents and bullying are handled.
The district’s response consisted of promising that it will train white staff to “apply an anti-racist/anti-bias lens” while working with students and better educate administrators. The district is also developing “authentic ways” to diversify school libraries to include books by people of color and for students of color.
