Assistant Principal Sparks School Walk-Out With Horribly Racist Tweet

Screen Shot 2014-11-19 at 8.14.58 PMWhenever a teachers or school administrator posts something horribly racist on the Internet I am conflicted. On the one hand, as Valerie wrote, it lets us know who they are so they can be removed from positions of authority. On the other hand, it is hurtful and awful and no students should have to see that. A group of students in Norfolk, Va, walked out of school this week after they saw a stunningly racist tweet from their vice principal.

According to the New York Daily News, Amy Strickland, assistant principal at Booker T. Washington High School, retweeted this tweet back in June:

The photo features a group of teenagers apparently headed to a school dance. All the young women are white, and all the young men are black. The caption asks if it is every white girl’s father’s worst nightmare.

Strickland posted the photo back in June, but the students just found it last week when someone was looking at her Twitter page. The students were appalled, and rightly so, because that is just unconscionable.

”I could have been any one of the boys in the picture,” said junior Michael LeMelle. ”And I really don’t see myself ”¦ as anyone’s worst nightmare.”

The students told the school about what they found, but the school took no action, so the students held a walk-out on Monday in protest. The Norfolk branch of the NAACP praised the students’ peaceful protest, and on Tuesday the school announced that it would be investigating the incident.

I would prefer that people who think jokes like that are funny stay far away from careers where they are in charge of young people, but if that’s not possible perhaps all educators could learn not to post racist things on the Internet. People are always saying, “If you wouldn’t want your mom, your partner, or your boss to see something, don’t put it on the Internet.” Educators should really add “or your students and their parents” to that list and live by it.

Photo: Twitter/OrNahh

 

Similar Posts