Bluffton student disciplined after putting racial slur on photo of Black teammates
A Snapchat photo with a racial slur taken by a white Bluffton High School student has caused an uproar on social media as it circulated among parents this week. The student snapped the photo of three Black teammates on the Bluffton basketball team, calling them “(expletive) monkeys.”
In a Friday afternoon press conference, the Beaufort County School District announced a new task force to address racism in the school district in response to the incident. Superintendent Frank Rodriguez said the student who took the photo is facing disciplinary action but wouldn’t say what it is.
A report from the Bluffton Police Department says a concerned parent approached a Bluffton officer and Assistant Principal Joseph Parker with the photo at Tuesday night’s basketball game.
It’s not clear whether the student who took the photo was also on the basketball team.
By Wednesday, an email went out from the school stating there was a “thorough investigation” underway, according to an email from Bluffton High’s principal, Denise Donica. On Thursday, in a separate email, Donica called the photo “racist” and said she disavowed the student’s conduct.
Under the district’s progressive code of conduct, the Snapchat post would seem to be a Level 2 offense, the punishments for which range from parent contact to detention, in- and out-of-school suspension, referral to an alternative school such as Right Choices Academy, expulsion and law enforcement contact.
A parent of one of the students in the photo, Kenneth Frazier Jr., said on Friday he was upset with the speed and detail of communication from Bluffton High.
“In instances like this we expect to be notified if our kids are in harm’s way. That just wasn’t the case,” said Frazier. “We were concerned for our children because they were left to the wild, and we didn’t know if they were targets.”
Frazier called the task force a good first step, but said he wanted “more sustained involvement and discussion.”
The first two members of the Equity and Inclusion Task Force, announced on Friday, include N’Kia Campbell and Lakinsha Swinton. Campbell is the district’s officer of academic initiatives, and Swinton is director of student services.
Both women are Black and Beaufort natives, which Campbell said will allow them to connect with community members.
Eventually the district will hire a permanent head of equity and inclusion, said Rodriguez, and the search will begin “immediately.”
“These three boys are good, hard working, athletes and academic scholars, but are seen by their peer as monkeys,” Monique Frazier, wife of Kenneth Frazier, wrote in a Facebook post that was republished by a friend publicly on Wednesday.
“I’m proud because these three boys handle this ridicule like men,” Frazier wrote in her post. “This could have [gone] really bad, but they said they have worked too hard to get where they are now, to waste it on him. I can tell you they are much better than me.”
This story was originally published January 29, 2021 at 5:08 PM.
