Alabama high school students seem to be getting a jumpstart on picking their dates to prom. However, one student is accused of cooking up a rather racist “promposal,” sparking outrage from parents all the way to the NAACP.
Pre-prom season is for picking out your dress and suit, scheduling your hair appointments and, most importantly, figuring out with whom you’re going to the prom. Typically, students make elaborate posters “proposing” to their date with a cheesy pick-up line or something punny.
However, one Tuscaloosa County High School student is alleged to have shown up last week with a rather offensive promposal poster reading, “If I was Black I’d be picking cotton but I’m white so I’m picking U 4 prom,” decorated with a variety of colorful shapes and hearts on a poster nearly the size of the student, according to AL.com.
Really? During Black History Month? Well, last year, a group of California middle schoolers handed out cotton balls to celebrate the month, so I guess anything on the table.
After the picture of the poster circulated social media, students and parents were outraged. In a letter to families, principal Darrell Williams and Tuscaloosa County Schools Superintendent Keri Johnson responded to the complaints asserting “there is absolutely no room in the district for racially-motivated language” and said the poster was against the student code of conduct, per WVUA 23 News.
While they said disciplinary action against the student involved cannot be discussed, they said an incident like this carries “serious consequences.”
The parents weren’t the only ones disgusted by the poster: The Tuscaloosa chapter of the NAACP responded to the incident in a statement calling for the district to blacklist the student from prom as one of the consequences of their behavior, the report says.
“If I was an administrator the student that did this would not attend the prom. Seriously. I know that sounds harsh but when you do something that could possibly incite others you run the risk of retaliation by students,” said NAACP Tuscaloosa President Lisa Young told WVUA.