On Monday, a Snapchat showing a photo of a table of Black students with a racial slur as the caption made its way around the Hartland area, prompting the district to investigate.
“I was like “Oh my God! This is 2024. why are we still dealing with racism?“ Caroline Norman recalled.
She told TMJ4 that was her reaction when her grandson showed her the post. He's a student at Arrowhead High School where one of his classmates captured the photo.
“Somewhere this has gotten out of line, way before this point, to the point this young child felt comfortable enough to put this message in social media,” said Norman.
The school sent out this statement in response:
Good Morning, AHS Families and School Community.
Last night, a highly inappropriate and truly disheartening social media post began to circulate among our students and community. The post displays a racist comment and circles, in the image, a group of minority students.
In no way is this acceptable, nor will racism in any way ever be tolerated at Arrowhead High School. As a school, we are conducting a full investigation and will respond appropriately.
This extremely poor decision and lack of understanding from a small group of students is not reflective of the greater student body and community. We also know that to change behavior and create understanding, we must use this as a learning experience. As we work through this situation with our students, we ask our parents and community to use this opportunity to engage in conversations with each other and your families. This event is not reflective of the community we want and these conversations have the greatest impact when they start in our homes.
Lastly, and most importantly, we sincerely apologize to those singled out and affected by this post. No person should ever be the target of ignorance or hatred in our world. Students are imperfect and must continue to be taught a greater understanding of how their words, thoughts, and actions impact others. Part of that understanding is that there will never be room for racism at Arrowhead High School.
Thank you,
The Arrowhead High School Administration and Staff
This isn't the first time the high school has been the subject of racist acts. In 2020, a senior at the school was banned from the graduation ceremony for creating a vulgar video mocking the death of George Floyd.
Norman says without teaching students the harmful effects of racist comments, instances like this will continue.
“Let’s deal with it. Let’s sit down at the table with Arrowhead, the administrators, and talk,” Norman told TMJ4. “What can we do to make it better for our students, where they can come into a healthy environment and be educated?”
That goal is what pushed Milwaukee native, Clintel Hasan, to co-found an education consulting group called LiberatED Consulting, that promotes culturally respectful and anti-racist learning environments.
“I think schools need to not only say this is not acceptable here, but also be very proactive in taking next steps and showing that it’s not acceptable and also providing the education for students,” Hasan explained.
In the district’s statement regarding the incident, they encouraged parents to hold conversations in their homes about the harms of racism. While Hasan agrees parents should be speaking to their children about these topics at home, she tells TMJ4 that cannot be the only solution to preventing racism in schools.
“Especially in Wisconsin, we know that we live incredibly segregated. So, it’s not someones fault all the time if they don’t know how to educate their own child about different racial backgrounds, because maybe they’ve not experienced them,” she explained.
She believes tackling tough topics at young ages in schools is the best way to make sure harmful mistakes as kids don't turn into confirmed beliefs as adults.
“I can't believe that any young person truly holds hate within their heart,” she told TMJ4. “They are simply replicating the things in their environment, things that they think are cool. So, what we have to show them is that there is a different way to be cool.”
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