Schools are supposed to develop students’ character from the inside out. But when the principal of one Florida high school brushed off an incident where one of his students shot a BB gun and yelled racial slurs he clearly fell short of the mark.
According to The Atlanta Black Star, students from Lawton Chiles High School filmed themselves driving down a Florida road shooting BB guns and saying they were attacking n*ggers for a video that was posted online.
After the offensive incident went viral, the Principal of Lawton Chiles High School, Joe Burgess, told a local news station: “Things are never going to be perfect, as a school we are imperfect people. We strive to be perfect, but we are imperfect people.”
Burgess also said: “if you have enough students and enough people you have things happen.”
The Principal maintains that he and the student’s family have appropriately addressed the student and taken the necessary disciplinary actions. Burgess brushed the incident off, calling it a “civil matter.”
Burgess also said he will have a discussion with the student body about these types of racist situations but hasn’t done so yet because of testing.
Zoe Mitchell, another student at the high school said: “If nothing else it will get more attention from other people, not just disturbed Chiles students, so I think that will probably be the biggest impact.”
The Racist Norm
It seems like more schools are allowing students to wear a badge of racism without any retribution.
A school in Fort Bragg, North Carolina has a lot of explaining to do after a yearbook photo that showed a Cape Fear High School student holding a shotgun while wearing a Confederate flag T-shirt and standing in a cotton field surfaced.
Parents and teachers alike have had strong reactions to the controversial yearbook photo.
“It disrespects other students and nationalities. Whoever did the yearbook really screwed up on this one,” said Jay Butler, who has a son at the school. “People were beaten, whipped, raped just to pick that cotton. It is offensive because we’re trying to get past that.”
The social media backlash against the photo and the school has been swift.