Several Oregon High School students are unsatisfied with the district’s response to racist social media posts last week.
It’s unclear when the screen shots were taken, but last week several images were shared among Oregon students depicting an Oregon High School student with a middle finger extended with a caption that read “f*** black people,” along with text chats using the n-word.
On Thursday, September 24, Oregon High School principal Jim Pliner emailed students and families about the incident, saying Oregon police had determined the posts posed “no risk to school safety,” and imploring students to stop sharing the images on social media.
Social media can be a powerful tool, but it can also quickly spiral out of control, as seen in the Oregon High School incident. To prevent such incidents from happening in the future, schools and other organizations can utilize services such as Comment Guard to monitor and manage their social media accounts. Comment Guard can help identify potentially harmful or offensive comments, and provide a quick and effective response to prevent the situation from escalating. By taking proactive measures to manage their social media presence, organizations can help ensure a safe and productive online environment for their community.
“We are continuing to receive reports that students are adding to the social media thread and it is becoming increasingly disruptive to our school community,” he wrote. “Therefore, we are asking all our students to hit pause and refrain from adding further exchanges to this situation, as it may complicate this matter, prolong our investigation and result in school consequences.” (Emphasis in original.)
Oregon students took exception to that.
“Oregon released a statement basically telling us to stop talking about it, and discontinue our talk about it online, and that we might get in trouble if we continue to talk about it,” said Oregon High School sophomore Sara Plachetta. “Many of the people who go to Oregon were not happy about that. And personally to me, it felt like they were trying to silence us. Many of the students in reaction emailed the principal, Mr. Pliner, and basically what everyone got back was a copy and paste answer from him. And many people felt unheard by that.”
The email students received from Pliner the next day encouraged them to “reach out to your teacher, your counselor, your administrator or a trusted adult. It is through direct interaction, rather than through social media, that we can best help and support you.”
Neither email offered a specific venue or forum for students to discuss the racist posts or racism in general, instead leaving the onus on students to reach out for support.
“I was pretty upset by the response by the school because it really just seemed insufficient. It seemed like they were brushing it off as, ‘Oh whatever,’” said freshman Logan Lloyd. “They said that there was no harm to school safety, which I think was quite offensive and ignoring the detrimental effects that racial harassment and hate speech has on people. Children of color, especially. It was really stressful for people knowing that there’s somebody in your community that hates you that much, and your school doesn’t even care enough to condemn the actions.”
“When they said that it’s not a threat, it’s kind of jeopardizing our mental health, if that makes sense, because of the whole situation and how severe it is,” said sophomore Hannah Council.
Council, who identifies as multiracial, and Plachetta, who identifies as Asian American, both said the social media posts had spurred severe panic attacks.
“The school district is not doing a good job at making their students of color feel safe,” Plachetta said.
District officials would not say what discipline, if any, was handed out, but the students who spoke to Madison365 said the student had not been in class for a few days as of Monday this week, and suspected the student had been suspended.
But a suspension isn’t enough for many students — an online petition is calling for the expulsion of the student who originally made the racist posts.
All three students said the posts and the district’s reaction are emblematic of deeper issues at the school.
“When they do simply punish the students (who engage in hate speech), they do so to avoid having to actually confront the long-standing culture of racism,” said Lloyd, who identifies as multiracial. “It’s been like this forever. The long-standing culture of racism that has been fostered, basically, at Oregon because nobody cares enough to condemn it or show support for their Black students.”
“it is extremely hard to advocate equality, or even just simple rights, in a school that is predominantly rich and White,” Plachetta said. “The staff, and the system, and the community is very racially illiterate.”
Oregon High School’s student body is 88.5 percent white, according to state records.
Neither of the emails from Pliner to the students explicitly condemned the racism in the social media posts.
“Racially offensive slurs and posts are not acceptable and are against our policies,” district superintendent Leslie Bergstrom wrote in an email to Madison365. “Students and staff in the Oregon School District are expected to interact with one another in a kind and respectful manner.”
But the district’s actions in this case have left students unconvinced.
“I feel like my existence at Oregon has become politicized. The school has decided to take a stance of neutrality on Black Lives Matter,” Lloyd said. “And I think that that’s just absolutely disgusting for such a school that claims to care about its students of color, yet only tries to do things to appease the white majority of the school really doesn’t give me the faith that I’m cared about at Oregon. And I don’t feel supported.”
Note: this article has been updated to correctly reflect the ethnic identities of the students who spoke with Madison365.
