Hallway Headlines: October 2017
The Central Times’ Mary Szymanski explores issues impacting other schools around the country.
November 7, 2017
1. Hope Mills, N.C.
At Gray’s Creek High School in North Carolina, fliers containing recruitment information for the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) were handed out at the Friday night football game on Oct. 6. The KKK was trying to recruit white male football players.
On the fliers were racist remarks about Jews, Mexicans and Muslims. They also attacked Black Lives Matter, black culture and NFL take-a-knee protests.
This was all written on top of a Confederate flag. There was also criticism against those removing Confederate flags and Confederate monuments. They stated that this was a sign that the white majority of America was not being respected.
These fliers were left on top of cars during the game.
Source: Newsweek
2. Oak Park, Ill.
A student at Oak Park and River Forest High School went on Snapchat and sent pictures of themselves in blackface to a large portion of the student body. The student sent a message along with the photo, telling viewers to vote for them for the president of the Black Leaders Union (BLU). This incident caused outrage among the student body and community.
Source: The Root
3. San Antonio, Texas
A high school in San Antonio voted to change their school name from Robert E. Lee High School to LEE High School.
LEE stands for Legacy of Educational Excellence. This change left many of the students upset and some in tears. One student said she was proud to wear the name across her jersey at games.
The school voted to change the name so there weren’t ties with the Confederacy.
Source: The Grio
4. Denver, Colo.
At East High School in Denver, videos were released on social media showing cheerleading coach Ozell Williams forcing each of the school cheerleaders into the splits. Each girl was held in position by the coach and teammates.
The videos were released over the summer and five school officials were placed on leave. This allowed time for the Denver Police to perform a detailed investigation. The administrators stated that they prohibit practices that would affect their students physical or mental health. However, the coach, Williams, claims otherwise. He agrees that he wasn’t intending to cause any pain. He claims that if the cheerleaders didn’t struggle, they wouldn’t be in pain.
Williams was fired for a similar situation at another school. Recently, the results of the investigation and trials showed that no criminal charges were filed.
Source: The Denver Channel