Hundreds of students at Oregon school stage walkout after classmate’s racist video

Video originally uploaded on Instagram includes racial slurs against Muslims, Blacks, Latinos and Asians

Students at Oregon’s Tigard High School staged a walkout last week against a student’s racist vid (Twitter/Tigard High school @TigardTigers)

Hundreds of students at an Oregon high school staged a walkout protest after a racist video made by some of their classmates went viral.

In the video that surfaced over the Thanksgiving weekend, a female student can be seen sitting on a bed using racist slurs against Black people, Muslims, Asians and Latinos, while another student behind the camera egged her on, reported NBC News.

The school’s official publication, The Paw reported that the post had originated on Instagram off campus and was not directed at any specific individual but rather targeted their communities as a whole.

On 2 December, students at Tigard High School, located in a suburb outside Portland, staged the walkout in protest against the video and to show solidarity with students of colour to make them feel included.

“I didn’t believe it, I was like, ‘No way,’” Sean Sorko-Ram, a 17-year-old Black student at Tigard, told NBC News.

“You hear someone say the N-word, you hear things here and there, but all of them together in one video. … The best word I can use is flabbergasted,” she added.

Students said that racist slurs are not uncommon in the school’s hallways.

“You can’t even walk 15 feet without being called a racial slur,” student Jordyn Smith told KGW.

“It’s not OK to be called the n-word, to be called monkeys, to be called anything to anyone. It’s not OK at all.”

The school’s principal Brian Bailey told NBC News that the protest represents students becoming more and more vocal.

“What students are reporting are from their personal experience,” he said.

“If we are hearing more reports of these situations it could represent an uptick in hate speech. It may also be influenced by our collective and continued work to encourage students to speak out and report these incidents,” Mr Bailey added.

The principal had earlier sent a letter to students and parents noting that the video contained “offensive and hurtful racist language.”

School authorities said that while they cannot give a statement on whether the student who made the video is still on campus but said that expulsion is unlikely.

Sue Rieke-Smith, superintendent for the Tigard-Tualatin School District who joined the students in their protest last Wednesday, said that the expulsion list is “very tight”.

“That list is very short and tight,” she said.

“Typically, it has to do with threats of violence or repeated acts that demonstrate that the student does not want to be a member of the community.”

She added that disciplinary action against the student could go up to in-school or out of school suspension or may include other disciplinary actions.

The incident is still being investigated by the district authorities, while forums like “listening sessions” have been created to where students can come forward and discuss the video and its aftermath.