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Is Student Prejudice On The Rise?
While prejudice and intolerance are nothing new, there is a growing trend of students boldly expressing prejudiced and even racist ideas, made more accessible by social media. A sampling of student expressions of prejudice from 2016-2019 appears below. While COVID-19 kept students at home for much of 2020, this trend continues.
Student prejudice can be prevented! For information on how to prevent and respond effectively to expressions of prejudice, please visit our Education page.
2019
- A social media post by two students using racial slurs and stereotypes.
- A group of students turned spirit day into "thug day" in Hedwig Village, TX.
- Racial harassment of Black cheerleaders at an Orange County, CA basketball game.
- A middle school student in Elk Grove, CA etching the n-word into a white board, targeting his teacher.
- Racist and anti-Semitic graffiti in an Emerson, NJ middle school classroom.
- A swastika and threats written on a desk at a middle school in Newton, MA.
- Students disciplined after posting racist threats and swastikas online in St. John's County, FL.
- Racist and anti-Semitic messages at an Englewood, NJ school.
- Students in Hurricane, UT pictured on social media in blackface makeup with another person in a KKK hood and a racial slur in the caption.
- A Jewish student in Wanaque, NJ being targeted with anti-Semitic jokes and graffiti on her desk.
- Swastikas repeatedly found at a Montgomery County, MD middle school.
- Two students in Bethesda, MD who wore blackface and used the n-word on social media.
- Social media images of White students in blackface in Bethesda, MD, and using the “n-word.”
- A racist prom proposal spelling out the n-word in Rancho Palos Verdes, CA.
- A racist prom proposal referencing picking cotton in Bellville, OH
- A student protest at a Flossmoor, IL high school after two White students wore blackface and disparaged Black girls.
- Outrage among parents in Pittsford, NY over student use of the n-word, telling a Korean student to go back to Mexico, insensitivity toward Black History Month, and more.
- A blackface cake baked in culinary class by White high school students in Portland, OR.
- White students at a Milwaukee, WI middle school requesting a pass to use the n-word.
- A White Lincoln, NE high school student handing out stickers with the n-word and President Obama's picture.
- Swastikas and racial slurs projected on a screen at an elite Washington, D.C. school.
- Student protests of a racist video circulating in a private school in the Bronx, NY.
- A police investigation of California high school students who built a swastika out of cups.
- A California high school plastered with swastikas after the visit of a Holocaust survivor.
- Swastikas and other hateful graffiti on bathroom walls at a Wantage Township, NJ school.
- Swastikas etched at a New Rochelle, NY high school and middle school.
- Threats of violence toward Blacks and Hispanics on social media and a threat to shoot up a school, both in Charlottesville, VA.
- Racial slurs yelled during a high school girls' basketball team in Portland, OR.
- A video posted to social media of a White Winston-Salem, NC high school student shouting the N-word.
- A swastika painted on the wall of a Rockville, MD school.
- A swastika and threat of violence on a middle school bathroom wall in Arnold, MD.
2018
- The suspension of two students who installed racist hot spot names that appeared on students' phones during an assembly in Snohomish, WA.
- New Hampshire high school students singing a racist version of Jingle Bells in class, resulting in a teacher being suspended.
- Approximately 50 male Baraboo, WI students doing a Nazi salute and laughing during prom photos.
- Marching band students who spelled out a racial slur on the football field in Snellville, GA.
- Nooses, racial threats, swastikas and Confederate flags found at a high school and middle school in Pasadena, MD.
- Multiple incidents of racist, violent threats written on the walls at an Oak Park, IL high school.
- A swastika carved into a bathroom stall at a private school in Cherry Creek Village, CO.
- A male student in Oak Park, IL who sent a swastika image to phones of other students during a school assembly.
- A swastika drawn in the locker of a Jewish student at a Lincoln Park, IL magnet school.
- 10 female high school students in Southlake, TX participating in a racist chant that was posted on social media.
- A Poplar Bluff, MO student who wore a KKK hood in class as part of a presentation on the constitution.
- Two two Norwell, MA high school students who posted an image of themselves with swastikas on social media.
- A swastika with the phrase, "kill them all," written on a bathroom wall of a high school in Wooster, OH.
- A White Flower Mound, TX appeared in a Snapchat photo pointing at a white board with a racial slur and swastika.
- White private school students shouting racist taunts at Asian and Black members of a visiting basketball team in Cincinnati, OH.
- White students gave an African American student a note with the n-word on it at an Oswego, OR junior high school.
- Jewish students speaking and crying at a school board meeting in Woodbridge, CT about hateful language used against them.
- A racist prom proposal referencing picking cotton in Sarasota, FL.
- A Snapchat video featuring a group of White Chandler, AZ junior high school students chanting the n-word.
- A White student in Washington County, UT who posted a photo of herself with a noose around her neck and x'es on her eyes with the caption, "Happy National N***** Day."
- A drawing found at a Charleston, WV high school of a person hanging from a tree with a rope around the neck. Next to the picture it says, "I have Black in my family tree. He's still hanging there."
- An Instagram video skit with White students from a Dallas, GA high school using the n-word and laughing.
- A racist Snapchat message sent to several African American students at a Mason, OH middle school, following an incident in which a teacher told an African American student she would "lynch" him if he didn't complete his assignment.
- A Noblesville IN student who lost his job and said he was ashamed of himself after accepting a dare to drape himself in a Nazi flag and chant racial slurs in a video posted online.
- A traffic sign at a Buellton, CA elementary school defaced with a swastika.
- A White student from a private school in Virginia who used the n-word to threaten an African American student on Snapchat.
2017
- Swastikas and racist language written on the bathroom walls in a Dallas, TX middle school twice in one month.
- A semester's worth of unresolved complaints about student intolerance, including nooses, use of the n-word, and a racist student video reposted to Twitter at a northern California high school.
- An investigation into group chats involving Brownsville, TN students making death threats and using racial slurs toward African Americans.
- A student and staff member disciplined for playing hangman using the n-word in Kokomo, Indiana.
- A racist message found on a mirror in a girls' bathroom in a Chesterfield, MO high school.
- Racist and sexist language and a swastika added by students to an online study document at a middle school in Princeton, NJ.
- A swastika made of wood chips found on a school playground in Canton, MI.
- A White student repeatedly harassing an African American student with racial slurs, leading to the African American student transferring to another school in Fargo, ND.
- A group of White students in Deptford Township, NJ who wore Confederate flag shirts and used racial slurs in response to classmates protesting racial inequality.
- A Snapchat video of a White student who put a chord around a Black student's neck and yelled, "White Power!" in Cantonment, FL.
- A Black honor student and his brother who withdrew from a Gloucester County, NJ Christian school after finding racist death wishes in his locker.
- A student shouting the n-word and telling a racially insensitive joke on a school bus in Rochester Hills, MI.
- The assault of a transgender high school student by fellow students in Newark, NJ.
- White N. Fulton, GA students who were disciplined after using the n-word in a Snapchat post.
- Swastikas and Nazi slogans written on bathroom walls and emailed anonymously to a senior high school and junior high school in Davis, CA.
- A White student in Lake in the Hills, IL who called a Black student the n-word, threw a banana at him and told him to pick it up, and then progressed to posting threatening videos online.
- Swastikas and racial slurs written and carved on school property in Rockland, MA.
- Three separate incidents of swastikas appearing on high school property in Reading, MA.
- Swastikas and racial slurs spray painted on the "W" in the courtyard at a high school in San Diego, CA.
- A White student in Dublin, CA who attacked a Black student when she told his friend to stop saying the n-word.
- A swastika with the word "soon" painted on a brick wall of a school on Yom Kippur in St. Cloud, MN.
- A swastika made by a student walking on the dew of the high school football field in Loganville, GA.
- A parent who spoke to the school board in rural West Geauga, OH about her 7th grade son being called the n-word.
- A White student's texting of racist jokes and subsequent attack by an African American student after his return from suspension in Clovis, CA.
- Two incidents at a Coatesville, PA school: a dark-skinned doll hanged from the ceiling in a locker room and a photo of White students behind pumpkins carved with "KKK" and swastikas.
- A White student in Collierville, TN who painted the f-word and the n-word on an African American pastor's car, saying afterward that it was meant to be funny, not racist.
- A "senior prank" of bending poles to make the letters "KKK" in the swimming pool and spray painted swastikas at a high school in Fremont, CA.
- Spray-painted swastikas at a junior high school in Fremont, CA.
- Swastikas and "KKK" spray painted on a public school in Stamford, CT.
- Two White Quakertown, PA middle school students who yelled racial slurs at an opposing football team's cheerleaders and threw rocks at the team's bus.
- A group of White students in Royersford, PA chanting the n-word on a video posted to social media.
- White students' texting of the n-word, which prompted a scuffle and a protest at a Washington Township, NJ, school.
- Two incidents at a suburban high school in Houston, TX: Racial slurs and drawings on a bathroom wall, and rocks moved to form a swastika.
- A video of White cheerleaders in Salt Lake City laughing as they curse and use the n-word.
- A federal lawsuit for racial intimidation filed against the school district in Saucon Valley, PA.
- A group of White students in Bel Air, MD who wore shirts with individuals letters arranged themselves to spell out the N-word for school photos.
- Offensive social media posts involving images of slavery by White students from a Richardson, TX high school, in advance of their school’s football game with a rival school.
- White students from Mesa, AZ, who made monkey noises at a Black basketball player.
- A "Put the Panic Back in Hispanic" sign made by a Robertsdale, AL, White student for a pep rally against the rival Spanish Fort Toros.
- A Dallas private school student who used the n-word in a stream of verbal abuse.
- A football player in North Carolina who used the n-word against a rival team's player.
- A video of Henrico, VA middle school students using the n-word and other slurs while pinning down African American students in the locker room.
- Racial slurs and swastikas scrawled throughout a high school, with some White students laughing posing for pictures in front of the "white power" graffiti, in Hedwig Village, TX.
2016
- A White Amarillo, TX, cheerleader who posted a video of herself spelling out the n-word as a cheer.
- The books and other belongings of a deaf Omaha high school student dumped in the toilet.
- Students in Albuquerque superimposing KKK hoods on the faces of students in a photo posted on social media.
- Reports by students in York, PA of racial harassment, including a student yelling, "White power," in the run up to the presidential election.
- A group of White students who locked arms in a Dewitt, MI high school hallway saying they were building a wall and telling a Latina student to "go back to Mexico."
- Anti-gay, anti-Mexican, and anti-Black, and anti-Jewish statements and drawings found in a Newtown, Pennsylvania school's bathrooms and in a student's backpack.
- White North Bend, Oregon students shouting “Go back to Mexico!” at an 11-year-old Colombian American student and others telling racist jokes.
- Five White high school football players in Creston, IA, who donned white hoods, burned a cross, and flew a confederate flag.
- A group of White students in Warrensburg, MO, who turned their backs and held up a Trump sign when a predominantly Black visiting basketball team entered the gym.
- A group of White students in Albuquerque who wore shirts with individual letters arranged themselves to spell out the n-word.
2015
- White students who combined the signs "White" and "Power" at a Flower Mound, TX, football game.
2012
- White Pittsburgh, PA students in banana suits who used slurs and made monkey noises while surrounding Black basketball players from a rival school.
Communicating Effectively Across Differences
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Our Connections staff development session offers skills for preventing and responding to student expressions of prejudice.
