Students at a school in Aledo, Texas were reprimanded after racist Snapchat behavior was discovered and posted online for all to see.
The students in question encountered widespread public outrage when S. Lee Merritt, Esq, a civil rights attorney in Texas, tweeted a screenshot of the mock slave auction held by the students in a Snapchat group message.
The students actually called it a "[N-word] Auction."
One student vowed to bid $100 on a classmate. Another claimed they'd pay "$1 for Chris...Would be better if his hair wasn't so bad."
@MerrittLaw/Twitter
In his tweet, Merritt contextualized the students' bigotry.
"White students from @AledoISD hosted a slave auction on Snapchat where they sold Black classmates for between $1-$100."
"The racism pouring into our politics, our public safety, our national security is being incubated in our schools."
Not surprisingly, people who saw the tweet were shocked and horrified by the students' actions.
According to Fox 4 News, Aledo Independence School District (ISD) stated the snapchat behavior in question occurred about two weeks ago.
The school also confirmed an investigation was carried out and the students were "disciplined" for "cyberbullying and racial harassment."
Aledo ISD would not elaborate on what "disciplined" actually means.
Fox 4 News also caught up with Tony Crawford, a local activist, who explained what he felt needs to happen next.
"I would say the community itself needs to sit down and address this. At our schools. At our learning facilities. And if they're not going to learn the right way there, where are they going to learn at?"
"And there's a right way to go about your relationships with Black people without demeaning them and embarrassing them for a laugh."
For many, the school district's vague promise of discipline was not enough.
With a regularly scheduled school board meeting set for next Monday, many anti-racist groups and individuals have plans to demand a more concrete response to the incident, Fox 4 News also reported.
Eddie Burnett, president of the Parker County NAACP who plans to attend the board meeting, had this to say:
"You have to be unambiguous about what your policies are, what the rules are, what the consequences are and what the reason is for putting so much emphasis on it."
"You can't be trying to excuse the behavior at the same time you address the problem. Because if you do you cancel that anything you're trying to do."
Despite such shocking behavior from its own students, the school district has found itself with an opportunity to permanently address a serious issue.
Only time will tell if that occurs.
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