Whistleblowing is becoming the new norm — in places other than the business and political sectors.
Even amongst teen texting habits.
A 14-year-freshman at North Carolina’s East Wake High School — about 20 miles away from Raleigh — exposed students at a neighboring high school for posting messages about killing black people in a group chat.
The Raleigh News & Observer reports that after Cenayia Pope Edwards and her parents informed the Wendell, N.C. school’s principal Stacey Alston — who is black — about the racial slurs and terroristic expressions, he told them no disciplinary actions would be taken on any of the students.
Edwards, who is black, went undercover to gain access to a group chat that a few white students at Corinth Holders High School in Johnston County were involved in.
Five students allegedly wrote heinous comments about “pulling triggers and shooting” black people, killing black babies, repeatedly used the N-word, and even added the hashtag “#BringSlaveryBack” during numerous interactions.
Some portions of the group communication occurred during school hours because of a reference to “the teacher is getting mad” in one comment.
Wake County school officials told the newspaper that they take the incident seriously but will not discuss whether disciplinary action had been taken because of federal student privacy laws.
Meanwhile, Johnston County administrators said Thursday that the principal of Corinth Holders High immediately investigated, engaged parents and “issued consequences.”
That district’s spokesperson Nathanael Shelton, did not offer specifics citing that the disciplinary information is confidential.
In the past though, the district has divulged disciplinary action against students for making racially-charged statements on and off campus, noted the Raleigh News & Observer.
On Thursday, community activist Kerwin Pittman held a news conference at Raleigh’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Gardens and was clearly disturbed by how the matter has been handled. Or mishandled.
“It’s extremely egregious and troubling that the language of killing black babies and shooting black people from students is not taken seriously from school administration,” he said.
“I believed that my school would take the right actions towards this.,” Edwards said, according to WTVD. “But it was evident they did not,”
“This is a threat to a whole community of people, not just one person,” her father Corderro Edwards said. “For Wake County to not move and take action on this is not acceptable. We will not accept it.”
Also on Thursday, Alston posted a video on YouTube trying to do damage control and promised to start a meaningful dialogue among students about race relations.
“I am reaching out to you today to state in no uncertain terms that this behavior is not acceptable in our school community, either during or after school hours,” he said. “Comments of this nature do not reflect our values. Moreover, they are damaging to both our school and our society as a whole.”
The great George Benson (and the great Whitney Houston) famously sang about believing the children were the future in the 1970s and 1980s.
And these days, “Poor POTUS” hosts wildly popular rallies in hopes to make AmeriKKKa great again.
Now put that in your pipe and smoke it!