Here’s an invitation Tomball Junior High School student Justin Howard would refuse: an invitation to a Ku Klux Klan-themed birthday party.
Luckily, he never saw the fake invitation because a teacher intercepted it first and notified his mother, Tahiyyah Howard. But sadly, it’s just the most recent example of a series of incidents of racist teasing and taunting the seventh grader endures regularly at his Texas-based school, Howard told ABC News affiliate KTRK-TV. And she’s “sick of it.”
The school district issued a statement to the affiliate admonishing the behavior of the two students who left the invitation for him as unacceptable and said they had been disciplined according to the district’s student code of conduct.
That’s not good enough for Howard.
“They need to know that there are consequences and not just a day in [in-school suspension] or one-day suspensions where they can go home and play video games all day,” she told KTRK. “I think the parents should teach their kids that being racist or bullying is not okay, no matter if you’re playing around or you’re just being mean. It’s just not okay.”
A white mother interviewed by the TV station dismissed the offending students’ behavior as kids being kids. Another mother, who is Black, said that’s how minorities are routinely treated in Tomball.
“That’s the norm here. We are the minorities and we’re treated as the minorities,” she said.
Spotted @ BET
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Quote: She told KTRK. “I think the parents should teach their kids that being racist or bullying is not okay, no matter if you’re playing around or you’re just being mean. It’s just not okay.” End quote. That’s the problem, that’s who they are learning it from, the PARENTS. I’m sure when ever they turn the TV on and see the president, all sorts of “N” words come flying out of their parents mouth. The cavalier attitude about “kids being kids” is the prime example of pretending the race problem doesn’t exist and not addressing the “Elephant” in the room or maybe it’s just the parents don’t see anything wrong the situation because they themselves are the problem and are desensitized to it because of the climate they set at home.