Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Threat to Kill Black Students at Missouri High School Prompts Protests

Parents and students protest at Fort Osage High School. Mará Rose Williams The Kansas City Star
Parents and students protest at Fort Osage High School. Mará Rose Williams The Kansas City Star

*About 200 students and parents protested at a high school in Missouri Wednesday after two students threatened in a Snapchat post to kill all of the black students.

“One of these days I’m going to have enough and come into the school with a gun and shoot all of you,” read part of the post, which appeared Monday targeting black students at Fort Osage High School.

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Superintendent Jason Snodgrass said the students responsible for the Snapchat threat had been found and were being disciplined. He declined to say what type of discipline was being handed out or whether law enforcement was involved.

Snodgrass said the district sent an email to all students informing them about the racial post. He said the district was dealing with any racial tensions at the school “as soon as we are informed about it, immediately, swiftly.”

Students participating in the protest Wednesday morning came with signs that said “Racism is alive at Fort Osage,” and “Stop the Racism, Stop the Violence.” And some shouted from makeshift bullhorns.

The protest was organized by parents and family members of black students. Parents and students said Monday’s post was not the first incident at the school.

They said that earlier this year a Facebook post said that several white students had pulled hijabs from the heads of some Muslim students and then stomped on the head wraps. The Muslim students have since left Fort Osage High School to attend school in another area school district, they said.

But in a news conference after the protest, Snodgrass said his district had investigated the hijab claim, and after interviewing several students, “it was unsubstantiated.”

But students and parents at the protest said the problem is pervasive, and they don’t believe school officials are doing enough.

“We were told by teachers even today that if we came to the protest, they were going to write us up. That we would get in trouble,” said Summer Thorpe, a white Fort Osage student. “A teacher kicked me out of the classroom on Monday for showing other students the post. They don’t want us talking about this. But if this stuff keeps happening, Fort Osage is going to be known as the racist school.”

Snodgrass denied that any students would be punished or harassed for attending Wednesday’s protest. “We think it is always important, not only in our school but in our community, to build and foster inclusion.”

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