Beyond ‘slave auction,’ other NC schools have had racial incidents in recent years
Allegations that students were “sold” at a mock “slave auction” at a Chatham County school are not the first time that Black families say that their children have been racially targeted at North Carolina schools.
Over the past few years, there have been several reported cases where Black students say they were harassed or even threatened due to their skin color. Here’s a list of some of the incidents that have drawn complaints:
▪ In February, extra police were stationed at East Wake High School in Wendell after a threat on social media used the N-word and said they’d “discuss how to get rid of all blacks at east wake.”
▪ In February, a social media post showed four Black basketball players from Knightdale High School in the target of a sniper’s cross hairs, and one player hanging from a noose. It led to the cancellation of a basketball game between Knightdale and Raleigh’s Millbrook High.
▪ In December 2021, the Johnston County school system announced that its law firm would investigate allegations that Black students were bullied at Princeton High School. Some Black students have publicly talked about white classmates calling them the N-word, telling them to pick cotton and threatening to beat them up.
▪ In October 2021, the Orange County school board passed a resolution saying it “stands united against all forms of white nationalism and white supremacy” and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. The resolution came after some students said that Proud Boys members shouted racist and homophobic slurs at them during protests.
▪ In May 2021, an Alamance-Burlington school board meeting ended early amid shouting over a story about the Black Lives Matter movement that appeared in a high school yearbook.
▪ In October 2019, an East Wake High student exposed a group chat where two students at her school and five students at Corinth Holders High School in Johnston County made racial slurs and talked about shooting Black people.
▪ In July 2018, controversy erupted at Jordan High School in Durham over a video on social media of a student-athlete who used the N-word and made a sexist remark.
Black students compared to slaves
▪ In June 2017, a white Apex Middle School teacher was suspended without pay for one week after he compared a Black student to a slave.
▪ In May 2017, an Apex Friendship High student was disciplined for a social media post that compared the all-Black members of the school’s step team to freed slaves.
▪ In March 2017, a white Wake Forest High School teacher was suspended without pay for a week for not dealing with the racial insults and harassment of a Black student in his classroom. The harassment triggered a viral video of that Black student throwing a white classmate to the floor.
▪ In March 2017, three students at Leesville Road Middle School in Raleigh were disciplined after a video on social media showed them making derogatory remarks about different racial and ethnic groups along with chanting “KKK.”
▪ In May 2015, a photo on social media showed two white female East Chapel Hill High students waving what looked like Confederate flags while on a school-sponsored trip to the Gettysburg battlefield in Pennsylvania.. A line under the photo read “South will rise” and a comment posted lower down read: “Already bought my first slave.”
This story was originally published March 11, 2022 at 4:50 PM with the headline "Beyond ‘slave auction,’ other NC schools have had racial incidents in recent years."
