Students suspended over ‘hateful’ photo
Image superimposing Ku Klux Klan hoods over kids surrounding black girls sparks outrage
ALBUQUERQUE — Officials at an Albuquerque high school have suspended two students for 10 days and kicked one of them off the football team for posting on social media an altered image showing two African-American girls surrounded by classmates with Ku Klux Klan hoods superimposed over their faces.
But some, including the parents of one of the girls in the photo, say the punishment for the two boys at Volcano Vista High School did not go far enough. And a top legislative leader who works for Albuquerque Public Schools said Friday that the incident shows a need for cultural sensitivity training for both teachers and students.
“We need to train the teachers in cultural sensitivity and then have them teach the students about the KKK and racism,” said state House Majority Leader Sheryl Williams Stapleton, D-Albuquerque, in an interview with The New Mexican. “It might start with some stupid picture, but if we ignore it, it could advance into something different.”
This especially is important, Stapleton said, because of the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist groups, which last month resulted in violence in Charlottesville, Va.
During an Aug. 11 rally called Unite the Right, a young woman participating in a counterprotest against the white supremacists was killed when a vehicle plowed into the crowd. The man accused in her death reportedly had been marching with neo-Nazis earlier in the day.
While the KKK is not active in New Mexico, KRQE-TV reported last month that the organization had launched a recruiting website in the state just after the violent rally in Charlottesville.
And the leader of Vanguard America, the far-right white supremacist group that organized the rally, is a native of Roswell. Dillon Hopper, 29, is a Marine Corps veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Federal records show he was discharged from the Marines in January.
The story of the altered photo from Volcano Vista has received national attention, drawing outrage.
Monica Armenta, a spokeswoman for Albuquerque Public Schools, said the photo was taken Aug. 25 during a sixth-period class. A student then altered the photo by putting images of Klan masks over the heads of the students surrounding the two African-American girls. The boys responsible posted the doctored picture on Snapchat in a group for Volcano Vista.
Armenta said a student immediately informed Volcano Vista Principal Vickie Bannerman, who quickly found out which students were responsible and suspended them.
The 10-day suspensions and removal from the football team might not be the extent of the punishment against the boys, Armenta said. She would not elaborate.
Efforts to speak to Bannerman were unsuccessful. A school receptionist told a reporter from
The New Mexican who went to the school Friday that Bannerman
was too busy to talk.
In a letter to parents last week, Bannerman wrote that she found the photo to be “repugnant and hateful.”
“At Volcano Vista High School, we expect all students to be treated with dignity and respect,” she said, “and we deem unacceptable all acts of discrimination and harassment including but not limited to sexual, racial and religious. This is what we teach; this is what we live by.
“You might want to talk to your child about this incident,” Bannerman advised parents. “Remind them to think twice about what they post to social media. They shouldn’t use the platform to harass, tease or threaten others, and they should remember that everything they post leaves a ‘digital footprint’ that can last forever — even in sites like Snapchat.
“Hateful, discriminatory or bullying messages and photographs may very well come back to haunt them as they apply for college and jobs,” she warned.
But Mary Jane Morrow, the mother of one of the girls in the photo, says the school has not done enough to punish the boys who posted the picture.
“We are disgusted to find out that these young men were only given a 10 day vacation from school,” Morrow posted on her Facebook page last week. “They get to return, to walk the same halls as our daughters, and continue to be a threat.”
“Unlike the Albuquerque Public School Board,” she added, “we do not see this as a prank.”
Citing the recent killings of two Clovis librarians, allegedly by a teenage boy, as the type of violence that could erupt from such incidents, Morrow, who has three daughters at Volcano Vista High, said she is frightened for her girls.
The girls have been called racist names at school, she said in one Facebook post, and one girl’s cellphone was stolen.
Referring to the altered photo, she wrote, “We see this as hate, as a very serious threat, and we pray that the Albuquerque Police Department takes this serious. She urged police to charge the Volcano Vista boys with a hate crime: “I’m begging the APD to do something before another Clovis, Sandy Hook, or Columbine happens, PLEASE!”
On Friday, Morrow posted a photo of a boy she called “one of the monsters who committed this horrible [hate crime] against my daughter.” In the photo, the teen is holding a rifle at what appears to be a shooting range.
Neither Morrow nor her husband responded last week to messages seeking an interview with The New Mexican.
Part of the blame, Morrow said, belongs to President Donald Trump, who initially was reluctant to blame white supremacists for the Charlottesville, Va. violence.
After finally calling out the Klan, neo-Nazis and other racist groups, Trump later qualified his remarks, saying there were many good people participating in the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville and that violence from what he called the “alt-left” also was to blame.
Under a copy of the offensive photo, Morrow wrote in a Facebook post that she wondered why the students who created the image thought it was OK. “Maybe it’s because his President thinks that it’s ok too???” Morrow wrote. “Please tell me Mr. Trump, what did my daughter ever do to deserve this? … What kind of America are you making for our children?”
While the overwhelming majority of those responding to Morrow’s posts have been sympathetic and supportive, there was some backlash against her criticism of Trump.
“Trump didn’t make anybody do anything but I think it’s pretty damn funny,” one Virginia man commented.
Stapleton agreed with Morrow that the president shares some of the blame.
“It’s a movement that’s grown since Trump came to power,” Stapleton said, referring to the KKK and other racist groups. Not only did the president’s reaction to Charlottesville embolden racists, she said, but his recent pardon of former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who had been convicted of violating civil rights laws, sent the message that racism is acceptable.
“Children pick up on it when they see it on the news,” Stapleton said.
Contact Steve Terrell at 505-9863037 or sterrell@sfnewmexican.com. Read his blog at www. santafenewmexican.com/ roundhouse_roundup.
Mary Jane Morrow, the mother of one of the girls in the photo, said part of the blame belongs to President Donald Trump, who initially was reluctant to blame white supremacists for the Charlottesville, Va. violence.