Photo Courtesy of Radloff Middle School website
Middle school students in Georgia face criminal charges after yelling racial slurs at a Black classmate and “whipping” her with a belt. The teacher was in the classroom but failed to report the horrendous act.
According to WSB-TV, the incident happened sometime in March (before spring break) at Radloff Middle School in Gwinnett County. The girl’s father told reporters his daughter’s assaulters were two Hispanic students.
“She was sitting with a Hispanic child, and the other Hispanic child approached them and said, ‘How much for your monkey?’ And the child responded, ‘$450,'” the father explained. “And so the main child said alright, looked at my daughter and said, ‘Alright, I own you now (expletive). Do my homework slave.’ My daughter refused and that’s when the child asked the other child to remove his belt and he gave her some lashings. And that’s when the teacher initially said, ‘Alright you boys, leave her alone.'”
Despite the teacher’s minimal effort, the students continued tormenting the girl, spitting out the N-word and whipping her with the belt.
On March 30, the girl texted her mother that she felt unsafe because of the racially-motivated attack and that she had to sit in the class the entire time with the same students.
Her parents arrived at the school the next day to discuss the issue with the administrators, yet they didn’t know what the parents were talking about because the teacher didn’t report the incident.
After learning about the incident, Radloff Middle School Principal Jennifer Callahan sent a letter to parents about the issue, informing them that the students faced disciplinary consequences for their involvement in “inappropriate and despicable behavior,” the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
“I want to be clear, hitting students and/or directing racial slurs at people will not be tolerated at Radloff Middle,” Callahan wrote. “It is a violation of our student disciplinary code, and violators will face serious disciplinary consequences.”
While the parents are satisfied with how the school’s administration handled the situation, they’re confused about why the teacher didn’t immediately report such a serious act.
“There’s no safe place,” the victim’s father remarked. “There should be several options for kids in that type of situation where they can walk out immediately, got to someone, have something done immediately.”
The girl’s teacher is under investigation. Hopefully, the victim and her family will get answers and justice.
The racist incident may have traumatized the girl; her father doesn’t think time would heal this damage.
Instances like this prove why critical race theory in classrooms is essential. The girl’s father said the students allegedly responsible for the racially-motivated attack added salt to the wound when they took to social media afterward.
Without CRT in classrooms, more incidents like this will occur. Many students today take racism lightly because they’re not given an in-depth lesson on the systems created to exclude Black and brown people as citizens or humans — systems that exist today. “If it ain’t white, it ain’t right.”
CRT critics want to argue the country is in a post-racial phase, and many students are taught racism is in the past, yet America is a country where police brutality and hate-based crimes reign today.
Furthermore, the fact that the girl’s tormentors were young Hispanics, minorities themselves, shows that these students don’t know the full extent of racism. The Latin community had endured racism since the United States took over 50% of Mexican territory when they won the Mexican-American War. And they’re still battling immigration issues.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis can argue that CRT promotes division and hate, but those are already here.
Children aren’t born racists, which means they adopt these racist behaviors or are comfortable saying racist things because they’re used to hearing and seeing it from those around them. That’s why it’s mandatory that students be taught racism is still woven into this country’s fabric.
A study from the University of Michigan showed that teaching CRT to children could lead to less prejudice in children and could boost “the self-esteem of children of color.”
The study also said that if classrooms fail to teach CRT, it’s “imperative that parents pick up the slack.”
While this doesn’t excuse the students’ actions, it’s evident that the system failed them and the victim.