Star black female kicker mocked in racist post depicting her as gorilla

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In a racist Instagram post that has since been deleted, a star black female kicker for a Michigan high school football team was mocked for her race.

Ashton Brooks, a senior placekicker for the Dow football team in Midland, Michigan, is the number one kicker in her conference. She has also received a partial college scholarship to Northwood University for her skills in soccer as well as a partial academic scholarship. She also has a great singing voice and is on the Dow basketball team.

But despite her success, she is being mocked for her race. New York Daily News justice writer Shaun King tweeted out a picture of the now-deleted Instagram post showing a white female student posing with someone in a gorilla suit that is identified as Brooks, writing, “When a young Black girl is the #1 football kicker in her conference, here’s what happens.”

Midland Public Schools Superintendent Michael E. Sharrow told USA TODAY Sports that Midland Public Schools is “sickened by the social media post and feel awful for Ashton and her family.”

“The Board, Superintendent and High School Administrators have thoroughly investigated this incident,” the statement continued. “The girl who posted the photo and caption is a former MPS student. She last attended MPS in the 2014-15 school year and now college age. We are equally offended and upset that our Schools and Community have been connected to her comments in this matter. The comments made do not reflect the beliefs of our District or Schools in any way.”

“During the investigation it was evident that the student in the costume was surprised to learn that this post had been made. He was shocked that some people thought that he was complicit in staging the photo. We believe that based on what we have learned, he was unaware of the post being made and specifically did not know about the girl’s comments until we addressed it with him….”

“Midland Public Schools will continue to track this information. We will condemn this type of racism and misuse of social media within our Schools, District and Community.”