Skip to comments.
Students disciplined for posters on King Day
(you wont believe this)
Omaha World Herald ^
| 1/21/04
| MICHAELA SAUNDERS
Posted on 01/23/2004 5:13:35 PM PST by mylife
Students disciplined for posters on King Day
BY MICHAELA SAUNDERS
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
A small group of Westside High School students plastered the school Monday with posters advocating that a white student from South Africa receive the "Distinguished African American Student Award" next year.
The students' actions on Martin Luther King Jr. Day upset several students and have led administrators to discipline four students.
The posters, placed on about 150 doors and lockers, included a picture of the junior student smiling and giving a thumbs up. The posters encouraged votes for him.
The posters were removed by administrators because they were "inappropriate and insensitive," Westside spokeswoman Peggy Rupprecht said Tuesday.
Rupprecht said the award always has been given to black students.
Westside Assistant Principal Pat Hutchings said the award has been given for eight years on Martin Luther King Jr. Day to a senior selected by teachers.
Rupprecht said disciplinary action was taken against the students involved but, citing student privacy policies, she declined to specify the penalties or what about the students' action led to them.
Karen Richards said her son, Trevor, who was pictured on the posters, was suspended for two days for hanging the posters. Two of his friends also were disciplined for hanging the posters. A fourth student, she said, was punished for circulating a petition Tuesday morning in support of the boys. The petition criticized the practice of recognizing only black student achievement with the award.
One of the school's students, Tylena Martin, said she was hurt by the posters and the backlash she said it caused.
Martin, a junior, said she is the only black student in her homeroom class, and the poster was on the door to her classroom when she arrived Monday morning.
Westside has fewer than 70 blacks out of 1,843 students this year.
Hutchings said she heard from several students about the posters Monday.
"Many students were offended," she said.
Karen Richards said her son and his friends were not trying to hurt anyone.
"My son is not a racist," she said. "He has black friends, friends from Bangladesh and Egypt. Color has never been an issue in our home."
"It was a very innocent thing," she said.
Richards said her family moved to Omaha from Johannesburg six years ago. Trevor, she said, "is as African as anyone."
TOPICS: Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; US: Nebraska
KEYWORDS: african; africanamericans; afro; black; bull; mlk; pc; raceissues; school; students; suspended; teachers; zerotolerance
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-20, 21-37 next last
"inappropriate and insensitive,"
Maybe we should stop worrying about the color of skin and focus on the thickness of it.
1
posted on
01/23/2004 5:13:36 PM PST
by
mylife
To: mylife
I am so glad this happened. I hope it gets tons of publicity. Africans in America are not "African-Americans," but people who couldn't even find the continent on a globe are. That's a PERFECT symbol for political correctness generally.
2
posted on
01/23/2004 5:18:57 PM PST
by
madprof98
To: mylife
Pretty funny if you ask me. Heh-heh-heh
3
posted on
01/23/2004 5:19:04 PM PST
by
BeerSwillr
(Profanity free since 2003-12-17 20:41:45)
To: mylife
How can someone who was born in Africa and who is now a permanent resident or citizen of the USA not be considered at least as much of an "African American" as someone who was born and lives in Jamaica and who happens to be black?
4
posted on
01/23/2004 5:23:38 PM PST
by
supercat
(Why is it that the more "gun safety" laws are passed, the less safe my guns seem?)
To: mylife
That reminds me of an anecdote I once read where a newspaper editor changed a reporter's story. The story involved a Jamaican man, whom the reporter described as black. The editor changed "black" to "African-American," but the writer complained that the man is Jamaican, not American. The editor said, the story runs with "African-American" or it doesn't run at all.
-PJ
To: madprof98
This is the fourth time I've seen this article on FR. It's like listening to the Howard Dean scream. Gets funnier every time. Of course, it's not funny to me because it's pretty sad a lot people don't know anything about Africa.
6
posted on
01/23/2004 5:24:08 PM PST
by
cyborg
To: mylife
My favorite King Poster was the one where J.Edgar Hoover is in the next room listening in on a planted bug while MLK is banging a white broad next door and telling her how he plagerized his fake doctoral thesis.
To: cyborg
Do you remember the last Olympics? Some black fellow won some event never before won by a black, and the announcers were desperately trying to say something like, "This is the first time the event was won by an African-American from anywhere in the world." Winner was from Tanganyika or something like that. Anybody remember the details?
To: MoralSense
LOL unbelievable... liberals suffer from terminal foot-in-mouth disease.
9
posted on
01/23/2004 5:38:45 PM PST
by
cyborg
To: mylife
The perp (pics from an earlier story by a TV station on the same subject):

To: southernnorthcarolina
I passed this on to my ex-boyfriend. He got a belly laugh out of it. This story gets funnier every time I read it.
11
posted on
01/23/2004 5:52:13 PM PST
by
cyborg
To: mylife
12
posted on
01/23/2004 5:53:19 PM PST
by
TomServo
("Why does the most evil man in the world live in a Stuckeys?")
To: TomServo
Oooopsey
13
posted on
01/23/2004 5:55:03 PM PST
by
mylife
To: mylife
hehehehe... It's OK...think of it like the 'scream heard round the world'
14
posted on
01/23/2004 5:57:56 PM PST
by
cyborg
To: cyborg
I just saw it for the first time, thought I'd share
15
posted on
01/23/2004 6:07:40 PM PST
by
mylife
To: mylife
I appreciate it. :-)
16
posted on
01/23/2004 6:08:50 PM PST
by
cyborg
To: southernnorthcarolina
Obviously Rabble rousers and hell raisers with no social redemption! LOL
17
posted on
01/23/2004 6:09:12 PM PST
by
mylife
To: mylife
I think it unfortunate that racism like this is allowed to continue in our schools. Imagine if there was a "white student of the year award" and that the student chosen was always white.
18
posted on
01/23/2004 6:43:21 PM PST
by
SoothsayerToo
(Racism alive and well in Omaha)
To: SoothsayerToo
Imagine a "European-American" student of the year award always being won by a white student.
I doubt such an award would exist anyway due to the horribly racist nature of insinuating any form of "whiteness" anywhere, ever.
19
posted on
01/23/2004 7:06:44 PM PST
by
martian_22
(Warning: Use of this product may cause anal leakage. Read all warnings before consuming.)
To: mylife
"The very idea," said guidance counselor Helen A. Handbasket, "that someone would be so insensitive to young African-American students as to remove the one thing that binds their group identity, their color."
20
posted on
01/23/2004 7:37:23 PM PST
by
Sender
(Code Yellow: continue shopping, please don't litter)
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-20, 21-37 next last
Disclaimer:
Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual
posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its
management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the
exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson