According to the Associated Press, a North Carolina school district superintendent apologized to parents after discovering that white students allegedly sold Black classmates in a fake “slave auction.“
The news was revealed after a parent, Ashley Palmer, posted on Facebook that her son was “sold” by classmates at J.S. Waters School in Chatham County.
“His friend ‘went for $350,’ and another student was the Slavemaster because he ‘knew how to handle them,’” the mother wrote. “We even have a video of students harmonizing the N-word. Since when were children so blatantly racist? Why is this culture acceptable? Chatham County was made aware and is intervening but hug your babies, especially the ones that are subject to racism by students and faculty. Parents teach your kids that this behavior isn’t OK.”
During a school board meeting on Monday, superintendent Anthony Jackson apologized publicly to parents and said that such actions by students “will not be tolerated in the school system.”
“I want to do something that needs to be done here publicly. I want to offer an apology,” Jackson said. “An apology to every single student who has ever felt unsafe while in our care, to every student who has ever felt demeaned, disrespected, or marginalized because of their race, ethnicity, sex, gender, religion or disability.”
He continued, “moving forward, it will be our intentional focus to ensure that this celebration includes everyone. Moving forward, my personal commitment to you, is that we will do better.”
Local groups urged school officials to increase penalties for those who commit racist acts, and they have requested that the students responsible apologize.
On Monday, Ronda Taylor Bullock, an anti-racism trainer, said the situation was an “act of white supremacy in broad daylight“ and encouraged the district to respond accordingly.
“How many students have to go to J.S. Waters with a similar story?” Bullock said. “How many more have to go through seared, branded as a slave by these horrible memories that we will not forget?”
The district will now make efforts to hold people accountable for racist incidents and provide more training to counteract them.
Jackson asked for the board to “authorize us to look at our staffing needs to ensure that we have the tools and the staff to appropriately reach out to our community to support these community agencies.”
“The reality is these acts of racism are not only happening here in Chatham County but across North Carolina and across the country,” said parent Christy Wagner, whose son was “sold” in the mock “auction.” “More should be done around addressing racism in schools, because no parent should have to stand here after hearing their son was sold in a slave trade at school.”
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