Racial slur found in bathroom divides community

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Junior Ryan Cobbins holds up a sign reading “we won’t stand for this” at the protest Dec. 15.

Isaia Wilcoxen, Editor-in-Chief

Last week marked an emotional scar for the students and faculty due to a racial slur found in the boys’ bathroom stall in the junior hallway Dec. 13.

The slur read “Kill All N******” and was found by sophomore Chris Lewis.

“It made me feel angry and ashamed,” Lewis said. ”I felt like nobody cared about us [African-Americans].”

Freshman Amaya Starks agreed.

“I think it’s sick,” Starks said. “People just going around school and writing this stuff is sickening and just makes me want to puke.”

Principal John Nguyen was shocked and disappointed when he found out about it.

“I think it’s a very challenging time for our school and community,” Nguyen said. “The events that took place are inexcusable. The language and tone that was used and threats that were issued are inexcusable. There is never a place for that.”

According to Lewis, he reported the racial slur to Nguyen. However, an immediate response didn’t occur.

“I talked to admin and they didn’t do anything immediately,” Lewis said. “But after I posted it on my [Snapchat] story and got parents to call in, they worked with me to set up an assembly.”

Thursday morning an alternative schedule was set in place so administration could schedule assemblies with the freshmen and sophomores and juniors and seniors.

“I loved the assembly,” senior Alena Riley said. “I did like that they split it into two separate assemblies. I think the message that Mr. Nguyen was trying to get across was easier to hear when there were less people. It also really showed how much Mr. Nguyen cared about the unity of his students.”

The assemblies were intended to serve as an informative meeting that would show students the effects of the racism and why it’s not OK. However, many students admit hearing negative comments the minute they walked out of the auditorium doors.

“Honestly, hearing the things I heard really hurt my heart,” Riley said. “Especially since it came from people I never expected it to come from.”

Lewis, who helped set up the meetings with administration, thought the students would benefit from the assemblies. However, he said he was disappointed with the outcome.

“I thought when I helped set it up it was a good idea,” Lewis said. “But after I left and everyone was saying it didn’t matter and they didn’t care, I felt like it was a bad idea.”

Many believed the assemblies were to confront the issue while others believed otherwise.

“I think it was really good to hear,” senior Sascha Dean said. “But I don’t think it was effective at all.”

After school, Black Leaders of America held a meeting in the library welcoming all students to discuss the racism. Many students of many different ethnicities voiced their opinions and concerns about the incident.

“The hateful slur on the stall did its purpose I feel like,” Bruce said. “It was there to show hatred and that’s what it felt like. It feels disgusting to me, it feels hurtful and it is extremely frustrating to feel like we were taking one step forward just to be thrown four steps back.”

A plan to do a sit-in protest the next morning was proposed and planned. Students wore black clothing and sat in the commons for 25 minutes after the bell rang. Bruce, who is a member of BLA, listed demands that students wanted to see employed and gave them to administration.

“I felt like we have said enough, so to sit in silence was the only other way to get the point across,” Bruce said. “We were able to get through to administration finally and show the entire school and admin that we aren’t standing for this anymore.”

Nguyen said he appreciated the students for standing up for what they believed in and thought the sit-in was a impactful way to voice their concerns.

“I wanted to receive that message and hear where students were coming from, because there was a powerful statement made that morning,” Nguyen said. “The commons area was full of people who were making a statement that they want an environment where their peers feel safe and welcomed and they were willing to take an active part in that process. It would be foolish of me to discount that any way shape or form.”

Many students believed the protest effective because of how well administration took it.

“The protest went very well,” junior Chris Baumli said. “It was not very well received by some students, but I believe it was received very well by admin and I hope it had a more positive impact than it did negative.”

Sophomore Edan Barns agreed that the protest was a success. However, she heard negative comments from students who disagreed with the protest.

“The minute we got back from it, everyone just caved at us for trying to voice our opinion about how we think that this is all wrong,” Barnes said. “There were people talking about how the protest was us whining about our issues and that it wasn’t doing anything.”

With an opposing opinion about the protest, Starks thought there was a better way to stand up for what is right.

“I feel like the protest could have gone better,” Starks said. “I didn’t sit at the protest because my way of protesting is different. I use my voice rather than being silent, because if I tell you what I want to happen we can work it out better if we talk.”

Although the vast majority of the student body agreed with the meaning of the protest, some students disagreed and voiced their opinion through Snapchat.

There were posts ranging from “The protest is a waste of time,” to “All the protest does is segregate our school.”

Senior Dalia Mejia took part in the protest and disagrees with this viewpoint strongly.

“I just think they need to at least try to understand or be willing to discuss about the protest with someone who partook in it and realize why we did what we did and be open-minded,” Mejia said.

Students were angry and upset with these unsupportive posts. However, later in the day another racial slur was found in the girls’ locker room bathroom, making matters worse.

“I wanted to cry the second time,” Barnes said. “It was such a slap in the face, because I was over the first one, and then right after we did the protest somebody had the audacity to do it again. It made me want to throw plates at a brick wall.”

Many students and parents blame the administration for enabling these incidents to occur because of the lack of consequences. However, Nguyen said they are doing their best.

“I would like to communicate to students, parents and faculty that we’re doing everything we can,” Nguyen said. “We’re working with KCKPD and trying to put our resources and information together to determine who’s responsible for this because believe me, on a professional level––on a personal level––I want to find out who did this, because we need to hold them accountable for their actions and send the message that this is not going to be tolerated and that’s something that our entire admin team is committed to. End of story.”

Bruce said she thinks consequences will occur, but that won’t be enough.

“Yes, I do believe administration will give consequences we ask for,” Bruce said. “The problem is not that, it is that this is happening again and again because everyone knows they can get away with it.”

To inform parents about the situation, a parent meeting was scheduled Sunday evening.

“I think it was great to see that many parents and community members decided to come out,” Nguyen said. “That shows that this is an important issue to a lot of people in our community. That was definitely encouraging.”

According to Nguyen, tensions were high at the meeting. However, he said having difficult discussions is necessary for improvement.

“We have a pretty broad distribution as far as where peoples’ perspectives are, and having a dialogue that is intended for moving forward has its challenges,” Nguyen said. “We wanted to create a forum where people could express themselves honestly, and we were aware that very likely that was going to include some high degree of emotions.”

Bruce’s father, Donald Bruce, attended the meeting, but said he felt that the discussion wasn’t productive.

“[The meeting was] uninformative, because I feel no resolution to the zero tolerance policy,” Donald said. “It was a lot of pointing and a lot of blaming, but it was just because of a lack of zero tolerance.”

Donald proposed installing metal detectors to secure safety from students who are threats.

“He [the student] is not only a threat to our students, but also to the parents who are black that attend school events,” Donald  said. “We need some more safety measures. Most places across the United States have metal detectors to safeguard against threats.”

There are many perspectives of the situation and how to handle it. However, Nguyen said it is necessary to talk about them first in order to move forward.

“For the big picture perspective, for diversity, I think the entire community needs to understand there’s still work to be done, hence the meeting Sunday night,” Nguyen said. “We’re working hard for progress and we need to hear the different perspectives so we can take the appropriate steps we need to and so we can make this place the best we can for the students.”

Although there is racial tension among the community, Nguyen said everyone must work together to confront the issue.

“The events Friday opened up some wounds from the past and brought up the fact that there are conversations that we need to have and until we are able to communicate in an honest fashion. It’s going to be a challenge to make for progress.” Nguyen said. “And really that’s what I’m after, it’s what our staff is after and I believe it’s what our community is after.”