Parents angry over racist message
Woodlands High officials say their options are limited
Lawyer Randall Kallinen stands with the parents of a female Woodlands High School student Wednesday as they express their disappointment in the school’s handling of the situation after she got a racist message on Snapchat from a classmate.
R.J. King said he was numb and terrified last month when he read a message on his daughter’s phone.
He has experienced overt racism before, he said, but never seen someone advocate genocide — let alone in a message directed at his family.
The daughter, an AfricanAmerican student at the Woodlands High School, told her dad that she received the message from a white classmate after she posted online in support of National Football League players protesting racial injustice.
“U liberals dumb as hell,” the boy had sent their daughter over the social-media application Snapchat, according to screenshots.
“Not as dumb as you racist,” the unidentified girl responded.
“(I don’t know) how the (expletive) racism got brought into this,” the boy responded. “Im standin up for my country.”
“We should have hung all u n ***** while we had the chance,” he continued. “Trust me it would make the world better.” King and his wife said they thought school officials would act on the threat — would take the message seriously.
But weeks after the incident, the boy still attends the school, and the Kings fear for the safety of their daughter and the handful of other African-American students at the overwhelmingly white high school.
Now, the family is considering legal action after what they said has been a failure of the school and law enforcement to protect their terrified daughter. School suggests transfer
Worse, they said Wednesday, was the administration’s suggestion that their daughter could transfer to another school to avoid the boy who threatened her.
“This was a serious threat,” R.J. King said at a news conference in downtown Houston on Wednesday. “And so we thought we were going to get a serious response.”
School officials meanwhile say they’ve done all they can about the messages, which came during a weekend and off of campus.
They’ve offered the girl crisis counseling services and said they changed the boy’s schedule to keep him out of contact with her.
“(Conroe Independent School District) does not tolerate this type of behavior,” a spokeswoman said in a statement Wednesday. “
“The campus administered several levels of disciplinary consequences and continues to work with the students involved and their parents,” the statement said. “Campus and district administration are committed to providing safe and caring learning environments for all of our students. Furthermore, reinforcing respect for others and building unity continues to be a top priority across our campuses as it is in our communities, and we are researching additional resources to support our students with these essential life principles.”
However, on Wednesday morning, the Kings said, their daughter found herself standing next to the boy. They and local civil rights groups say not enough is being done to protect AfricanAmerican students, who make up only 2.5 percent of the student body, from a classmate they feel is potentially dangerous.
Simply moving the girl to another school would do little to protect others, they said.
“How would that help the other African-American students or the other students in general?” civil rights lawyer Randall Kallinen asked Wednesday. “How would that keep them safe? When you threaten to kill and say that the world is better off by getting rid of a certain race, that is the epitome of racism. And the school did next to nothing.” Schools face quandary
The U.S. Department of Education has previously said schools are responsible for investigating harassment, “including verbal acts and name-calling; graphic and written statements, which may include use of cellphones or the internet; or other conduct that may be physically threatening, harmful, or humiliating.”
But what, exactly, schools can or should do while investigating incidents is a more difficult question, having been muddied by the preponderance of threats and bullying via social media, said Ken Trump, president of the National School Safety and Security Services consulting firm.
Generally speaking, he said, “school administrators struggle in taking a balanced approach to dealing with issues that do or may spillover into the school or pose a potential threat.”
“On the flip side,” Trump said, “parents are increasingly bringing social media conflicts that occur outside of school hours and school days into the principal.”
“Where does the line of authority of a principal begin and end?” he asked.
The Kings, for their part, believe there is no question that the messages sent to their daughter rise to a level of seriousness that warrants immediate, preventative action from school officials.
Kallinen, who is representing the Kings, said they are giving school officials another chance to prove they are taking the messages seriously, after which they’ll decide whether to pursue legal action.
Regardless, Kallinen said, the school’s response thus far has been concerning, and shouldn’t be taken lightly.
(The messages) were a threat to her life,” he said. “That’s a threat to other African-Americans at The Woodlands. This is a very serious matter. And Woodlands High School did not take it so serious.”