Students Walk Out Of Brookline High School
Hundreds of students at a Massachusetts high school walked out of classes for a second time Thursday in support of a classmate who was the target of a racist slur in at least two Snapchat videos.
The walkouts by students at Brookline High School was organized by members of the African-American and Latino scholars program who say they don't feel safe and claim the administration didn't move quick enough to deal with the issue.
One happened in the around 10 a.m. and another around 2:30 p.m.
"I wasn't nervous at all because it's something that needed to be done," said junior Shaniyah Clouden.
"This was racial slur after racial slur directed at one African-American student," Hassan Abdirahman, a student rally organizer, said at the rally, which took place on the front steps of the school.
In one video, the N-word was used to target a Brookline High School student. A second video shows students directing a racial slur toward a student driver.
NBC Boston has bleeped out the slurs and blurred the faces of two BHS students and a recent graduate.
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Students in the school's African American and Latino scholars program shared the original version online.
Brookline Superintendent Andrew Bott spoke with students after the rally and denounced the videos in the strongest terms. However, he admitted that more needs to be done.
"I believe that we have made some very important steps. But clearly, there's more work to do," he said.
Despite describing a racist culture at the school, the rally organizers say they were encouraged by the show of support.
"I didn't know there was a lot of support behind us. But now seeing how many how many students are out here, basically the whole school, it really encourages us to keep fighting for what we believe in," Abdirahman said.
Bott said one student has been disciplined, but would not go into the details.
