Two high school seniors from Georgia learned that being racist on social media can have consequences on their academic lives.
A male and a female student—both unidentified by Carrollton City Schools officials—were expelled from Carrollton High School after they posted a "racially offensive" TikTok video.
In the video, the two White students used racial slurs while mimicking a cooking show demonstrating how to make Black people by using "ingredients" such as "eat watermelon and fried chicken," "don't have a dad" and "rob people."
PhD researcher Lynx Ekoule-Nseke captured the video and re-posted it on his Twitter account exposing the students' identities as Stephanie Freeman and Jeffrey Hume.
Warning: The video contains defamatory and racist language.
Carrollton High School student Juan Nievs told CBS 46 he was shocked to discover his classmates had made the TikTok video.
"I walk through the halls with those folks and to see that they think about us like that.... it made me angry."
Terrell Carmichael, who also knows both students in the video, said:
"I was mad, like angry. They would not normally talk like this, it was a complete surprise to everybody in our school."
People were furious over the video's blatant racism in which the N-word was used.
Carrollton High School's principal, David Brooks, launched an investigation after the video went viral.
Brooks said in a statement:
"Even if the offending incident was recorded after-school hours, it doesn't alleviate the students' responsibility to uphold a high standard of behavior."
The two students were expelled by 3 p.m. on Friday.
According to the tweet below, Jeffrey Hume was also also kicked off his wrestling team.
But this user predicted the general contents of an all-too formulaic apology would be coming.
A tweet with screenshots of Stephanie Freeman's inevitable denial of responsibility and pseudo apology was shared on Twitter.
In the post, Freeman admitted to posting the video, but blamed it all on her boyfriend. She said she allowed him "normalize" his racism with her which is the only reason she used racial slurs and created and posted a racist video on TikTok.
She also pleaded with social media users to leave her alone and to not contact her college because "one mistake should not ruin a life."
Freeman continued saying she was going to dedicate her life to God, so she deserves no repercussions for her actions.
She added "threatening, bullying and cancelling" her would not "resolve the world's problems" and urged everyone else to seek God.
Finally, she begged everyone to stop sharing her TikTok video.
After lamenting that "it just isn't fair" she accused users of not "caring what's in [her] heart or what [she's] really like."
A screenshot of Hume's apology was captured as well.
Similarly to Freeman, he said it wasn't right to have "thousands of people subject my family to abuse and bullying" and "two wrongs does not make a right." He assured people that it "does not reflect who I am" and that he has "friends of all races, especially black people."
He stated it was "just a joke" and asked "why is everyone so mad."
Hume did not address Freeman's assertion that he is racist and he lead her astray.
@jph101688/Instagram
People were unforgiving over their apologies coming only after their expulsion.
The city of Carrollton issued the following statement:
"This week a video was posted to social media by two members of our Carrollton community. The video depicts two Carrollton High School students using racist stereotypes and disparaging language to put down other members of our community. The video has been picked up by media outlets across the country and gone viral."
"Mayor Cason and the Carrollton City Council are saddened and embarrassed that this video was made. Carrollton is an incredible city with a diverse population. We do not believe this reflects the character of our community. We do, however, believe in the power of this community to recognize and stand up in the face of evil. We publicly denounce this video and ask that we come together in kindness, understanding, and mutual respect."
