Arrowhead racist social media post, school officials investigating
HARTLAND, Wis. - Arrowhead High School officials are investigating a racist social media post that was circulating among students and the community on Monday evening, Feb. 5.
School officials made a statement condemning the post, but family members who spoke to FOX6 News said they believe the school district isn't doing enough to prevent racism and bullying.
"There is no way that I thought that he would have experienced that," said Juanita Norman, whose son was among the students targeted in the post. "When I first saw the picture I was upset, but I was really concerned."
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The photo shows a group of minority students during lunch. That group of students was circled with a caption calling it the "n***** table."
"I still feel like I had a responsibility to do something because that is my grandson. He’s still a part of the crew that comes out there," said Caroline Norman, the student's grandmother.
Caroline and Juanita Norman
Juanita Norman said this isn't the first time her son has experienced racism from classmates.
"He didn’t go to school today, so he needed a break," she said Wednesday.
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"You think you're sending your child to a safe environment, and then you find out that environment is really not safe," said Caroline Norman.
Arrowhead Schools released a statement Tuesday calling the post "highly inappropriate and truly disheartening" – adding that the district has no tolerance for racism. The Normans believe the school needs to reevaluate.
Post at center of Arrowhead High School racism investigation
"As if they wanted us to be quiet, ‘We’ll deal with it quietly,'" Juanita Norman said. "This is loud, this is disturbing, this is scary.
"There needs to be a system in place that will fight for our children when they feel they are coming up under this type of hatred," said Carolina Norman.
FOX6 reached out to the Arrowhead Schools' superintendent on Wednesday. He said the photo was taken four months ago but brought to the school's attention when it was posted on social media this week. He also said the student who took the photo is being held accountable with "the appropriate consequences."
Arrowhead High School, Hartland
Arrowhead Schools statement (Feb. 7)
This week, the Arrowhead Union High School Administration became aware of an inappropriate and unacceptable image that was posted on social media on Monday, February 5, 2024. The image was created approximately 4 months ago by a 9th grade Arrowhead student, but only posted to a small, private social media group. Another student captured a screenshot of the image months ago, but it was not posted, shared or brought to our attention. The image was put out on social media this week by a parent of an Arrowhead student. The personal phones and accounts used to create and post the image have no connection to the school district.
The image in question is of two students in the foreground, and there is a small group of students sitting at a table in the background. The image has the completely unacceptable and abhorrent caption that refers to the table as the "N-word table".
Only the individuals who possessed the 4-month old image can explain why they did not bring it to anyone’s attention until now. It appears there may have been an attempt to connect the 4-month old image to a separate and unrelated interaction that occurred between students this week. As those incidents are completely unrelated, and involve different students, it is unclear why anyone would try to connect the two.
District administrators have been in continual communication with all of the students and families involved. Supporting the students targeted by the unacceptable post is a top priority.
The unacceptable language is the result of an extremely young, immature student who had a complete lack of awareness of the implications and impacts of using this racist term. That in no way excuses the behavior. The students responsible for this social media post will be held accountable through the most appropriate consequences.
School administrators and teachers do all we can to produce critically thinking, kind, compassionate, respectful, hard-working problem-solvers who will become leaders in our communities. Some students do make poor decisions. Sometimes those decisions are due to ignorance and/or immaturity. Some poor decisions are due to influences like social media, which exposes students to horrible messages and beliefs that we do not tolerate in our schools.
This repugnant post does not represent our students, staff, families or community. Human beings, particularly adolescents, are not perfect. They make mistakes. We do our best to have students learn from mistakes, while holding them accountable to the high standards we have at AHS.
We do not teach, condone, promote or in any way facilitate hurtful, mean-spirited and/or racist behavior. Public school staff take on the responsibility for our society to teach and model caring and respectful behavior. We emphasize treating others with dignity and respect at all times. We emphasize treating others the way we want to be treated. We emphasize being kind.
We will continue to serve our role in educating our citizens and future leaders so that ignorance is replaced by knowledge, apathy is replaced by empathy and resentment is replaced by resilience, kindness and forgiveness.
There is no further comment on this matter.