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The surfacing of a video in which students are heard chanting “crack (N word)” has rocked the elite Ethical Culture Fieldston School in the Bronx.
Administrators at the tony prep school, once viewed as a stronghold of progressive beliefs, learned of the video tape because it was being used in a dispute and then went viral, according to the Daily News, which published the video. The development comes just a few weeks after a blackface video surfaced involving students at Poly Prep County Day School in Brooklyn.
In a letter sent to parents on Monday, Fieldston head Jessica Bagby wrote, “We recently learned about the existence of video made a few years ago that involves several ECFS students and one former student using racist, homophobic, and misogynistic language in clear violation of our community values and expectation.”
One student withdrew from Fieldston as a result of the school’s discovery of the video and other students are receiving varied consequences based on their involvement, according to Bagby’s letter.
Student groups have reportedly been meeting to discuss the development, faculty members asked to attend a racial justice seminar and parents were directed to educational sites.
One Black student interviewed by the News said white students were attempting to minimize the potential effect of the video.
“They’re saying it was a long time ago, kids will be kids, boys will be boys kind of thing,” the student said.
He said suggested it also is a reflection on the school overall. “The biggest issue would have been, obviously, why wasn’t this problematic to you before?”
Brooklyn private school deals with racist video
Brooklyn’s Poly Prep Country Day School is working to clean up its image after the tiny private school came under fire when a racist video made the rounds on social media starring two of its students in offensive blackface.
Although the two students are reportedly no longer at the school, administrators are still struggling to address the videos and the school culture in a series of meetings with parents, students, school administrators and staff.
The NY Daily News learned, however, that the Poly Prep school has been under fire before regarding two previous incidents at the all-male, all-white school two years ago.
According to the outlet, on May 3, 2017, vandals spray-painted racist messages on school walls, including a swastika and the N-word.
Some 48 hours after that incident, the outlet reported, the head of the school Audrius Barzdukas issued this statement:
“On Wednesday evening, we discovered graffiti on the windows of the Student Center at the Dyker Heights campus that included crude and offensive language and imagery,” wrote Barzdukas. “We immediately closed the center and our maintenance staff removed the writing and drawings.”
However, no one was reprimanded for the racist graffiti and many parents didn’t think enough was done to address the matter. The school however said they could not identify the culprit, even after a month-long investigation.