After all the racist promposals that have made headlines in recent years, two California high school students apparently didn’t think the power of the Internet and collective backlash would find them.
They were wrong.
In a photo that has now gone viral, the students (who have not been named) can be seen holding up a sign with capital letter spelling out the N-word with one asking the other to prom.
via Complex:
“BiaNa You are racIst,” the sign read. “But I would Give anything for you to Go with mE to PRom.”
The photo of the Palos Verdes High School students began to spread outside the school after a fellow student named Ryan Pascal shared it on Twitter. She called on the school to discipline the two students in a tweet that went viral.
“In today’s climate, No one is safe in an environment where racism is tolerated and joked about,” Pascal wrote in a statement after the photo began to spread. “That there are students on campus who do not recognize the blatant disrespect the words they used hold is a testament to the lack of effort we as a society put into expunging atrocities like these.”
Palos Verdes principal Allan Tyner released a statement saying that there might be “severe consequences” for the two students. While he initially referred to the offending language as a “slang term,” a later statement correctly identified it as a racial slur.
Pascal shared that the two students have been disciplined and noted that they are deserving of a chance to show that they learned their lesson.
“We all deserve a second chance, and that starts with learning from our mistakes,” she wrote, while refusing to share the students’ names.
Take a look at the sign as well as correspondence from the school below.
These two individuals attend my school and thought this was an appropriate promposal. I’m calling on my school to take action against this vile display of racism. @PVHS_Seakings @PVHSTyner pic.twitter.com/7mc0Y4V0V5
— ryan (@ryanpascal_) May 14, 2019
The principal, Dr. Tyner, released a statement. pic.twitter.com/EbCJqmzQdG
— ryan (@ryanpascal_) May 15, 2019
This email was sent this morning where he appropriately calls the word a racial slur. pic.twitter.com/pqN422RB9r
— ryan (@ryanpascal_) May 15, 2019
