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White supremacy petition started at an American high school in Maryland
http://www.capitalgazette.com/news/s...106-story.html
Students at Arundel High School passed around a petition Friday titled "Kool Kids Klan" asking their classmates to join a movement celebrating white supremacy over black people.
Two students signed the petition.
School administrators confiscated the document and are interviewing students involved in the incident. School staff contacted Anne Arundel County police.
Lt. Ryan Frashure, a police spokesman, said investigators consulted the county State's Attorney's Office and decided not to pursue criminal charges.
Superintendent George Arlotto sent a letter to parents condemning the petition.
"I am shocked, dismayed, and quite frankly, angered that such a piece of material would be produced, much less appear in one of our schools," he wrote. "It is unconscionable to me how anyone could believe this material is anything but horrifying, and it has absolutely no place in our schools or school system."
The petition uses a racist word to describe black people and referred to degrading stereotypes.
Arlotto asked parents to share with the school administration any information they learn from their children on the matter.
County Executive Steve Schuh joined Arlotto in rebuking the petition.
"Our schools should be safe places that embrace diversity and reject racism," Schuh said in a statement.
State's Attorney Wes Adams and police Chief Timothy J. Altomare issued a statement emphasizing their commitment to a multicultural community.
Bob Mosier, Anne Arundel County Public Schools spokesman, said Arlotto spoke to the county executive's office and leaders in the African-American community, including the president of the local NAACP, the Rev. Stephen Tillett, about his concerns regarding the petition.
"Sadly, I was not really surprised," Tillett said in an interview with The Capital.
He said children learn from what they see in public and what they hear at home, referring to the divisive rhetoric of the 2016 election.
"I'm not surprised that children who have been immersed in hate, whether it was publicly or at home, would then bring that into their own environment."
He said school leaders have to address bigotry systematically.
"They can no longer view and categorize these as isolated incidents," he said.
Arlotto also sent a letter home before Thanksgiving encouraging civility and kindness in classrooms despite "outside rhetoric."
The Arundel High incident follows a string of racist graffiti, including swastika drawings at Anne Arundel Community College, and an increase in reported instances of hate speech, harassment, and graffiti across the country.
In November, a school district in Pennsylvania found a racist Twitter account titled "Kool Kids Klub@PalmertonKKK."
In December, a threat that referred to Islam appeared in a Severna Park Middle School bathroom, and last spring a North County High School student's satirical essay calling for the death of black people circulated online, causing an uproar in the community.
In 2015, white supremacist song lyrics appeared on a Severn River Middle School resource website. It referred to "KKK."
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Originally Posted by Checkm8
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