Last Monday, as part of a new student recruiting effort, a school recruiter representing Oklahoma Christian University appeared at Harding Charter Preparatory School in Oklahoma City to meet new potential students...but ended up alienating them instead.
The recruiter has been fired from his position at OCU after "playing" a racially insensitive "game" with students.
When the recruiter appeared at Harding, teachers and students no doubt assumed it was going to be a fairly typical visit since Harding and OCU have had a long-standing, positive relationship over the years.
On this day, however, the recruiter in attendance, whose identity has not been made public, ruined the visit for everyone when he decided to play a "game" with the students.
Korey Todd and Rio Brown are both students at Harding Charter Preparatory School, and they were interviewed about what happened during the incident by KGET News and a local news radio station.
Todd explained:
"[The recruiter] was like, 'Let's play a little game.' He said, 'Okay everyone, now line up from darkest to lightest skin complexion."
Though confused, the students did what they were told, and rearranged themselves in front of the recruiter according to their complexion.
According to Brown, the recruiter then took it one step further, who said the recruiter then told them to rearrange themselves by hair textures.
Brown recalled:
"He told us nappiest hair in the back and straighter hair in the front. Teachers left. They were crying because they were offended. It's just horrible."
You can see more coverage from KGET News here:
The University is actively working to make amends with the preparatory school, however, after posting a public announcement and apology online, and planning an in-person visit to apologize to the school body.
The statement read:
"OC admissions leadership did not approve the inappropriate activity in advance and has communicated closely with Harding administration since the visit. Admissions staff are scheduled to visit the academy Monday to apologize to Harding students and staff on behalf of the University."
Many online are enraged after the incident and want the recruiter's information to be released.
Whether or not the recruiter's identity will be released is unclear, but the University does appear to be doing what it can to improve on a very hurtful situation.
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