by Oliver Morrison
Hundreds of Fox Chapel students and alumni are calling on their school district to more aggressively address racial injustice in the district as Black Lives Matter protests have sprung up across the country, including the Pittsburgh region. They are also considering a protest of their own.
These calls for justice and reforms are emerging as the district is conducting an investigation into offensive photos and racist videos posted on a student’s Instagram account with racial epithets. The videos that started circulating recently showed Fox Chapel students using the n-word, in one case, shouting it at a house party while students were dancing.
According to students in the Black Student Union who made the complaints, the district told students that the language used was inexcusable and it is “investigating the situation.” The district told students that it would contact the students and families in the videos but also said it was limited in how it could respond to student behavior off campus.
Bonnie Berzonski, a district spokesperson, acknowledged that officials had seen videos with racial epithets and said the district is following district policies and the law but “will not comment on specific student matters.”
For William Generett, a graduating senior and president of the Black Student Union, the videos provided tangible evidence of the attitudes he has long complained about witnessing in the district.
“There was something going wrong with these kids’ education,” Generett said. “Something needs to change.”
More than 800 students’ and alumni’s names were included on an open-petition created on June 4 calling on the district to make more public the support for Black Lives Matter and to execute sweeping changes at a time when anti-racism protests are happening across the country. The vast majority of the names are from current students or alumni who graduated in the past few years.
Fox Chapel Area High School. (Photo by Ryan Loew/PublicSource)
READ ENTIRE ARTICLE AT:
https://www.publicsource.org/fox-chapel-students-call-for-change-as-the-district-investigates-racist-videos-black-lives-matter/
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