Parents Fume Over Racist Social Media Post At North Cobb

NORTHEAST COBB, GA -- Upset parents chastised members of the Cobb County school board Thursday night in the wake of a racist and threatening social media post targeting students in the area.

A snapchat post two weeks ago that threatened to "exterminate" African-American students continues to stir discord among parents of students at North Cobb High School because the adults don't feel the district handled it correctly.

“It’s not a black thing or a white thing, it is a safety thing for all children at North Cobb High School,” parent Ashley Mitchell said at the school board meeting, according to WAGA-TV. “The administration did not handle the situation at all.”

In a letter sent to parents, North Cobb strongly denounced the post, saying that the "administration and staff does not condone this type of profane and bigoted behavior in our school. The message was deplorable and we denounce everything about it. We take this matter very seriously and we are addressing it in accordance with Cobb County School District policies and procedures."

Many in the community feel that the school and parents need to come together in a plan to make sure something like this never happens again.

"The principal's vague letter and the district's claim of confidentiality both miss the larger point. Students and their families deserve a forum to be heard (with more than one extra minute), a place to connect, and strategies for organizing," Jillian Carter Ford, Ph.D., an associate professor in Kennesaw State's Education Department, told Patch in an email. "There needs to be generative conversation about how to move forward from this as a community; traditional disciplinary measures of suspension are ill-fitted."

Read more: Cobb School Responds To Racist Post: 'We Denounce Everything About It'

One of the main gripes from parents is that they say the student was not permanently expelled from the school -- something that many of them believe could come back to hurt their children.

“We were told it’s not a threat, not a specific threat, that is just ridiculous,” parent Katherine Santos said, according to the TV station.

Many of them said that they would never have heard about the incident if a student didn't screenshot it and post it on Facebook, where it quickly circulated.

Many students at the school said that they didn't feel safe. "It was about being afraid. It was just so disrespectful because it was threatening to us as African Americans," Aliyah Mickens, 18, told news reporters right after the incident.

Parents are also upset that, in their opinion, the school's initial notification was overly vague.

“The North Cobb High School administration and staff does not condone this type of profane and bigoted behavior in our school,” the letter said. “The message was deplorable and we denounce everything about it. We take this matter very seriously and we are addressing it in accordance with Cobb County School District policies and procedures.

“First of all we would like to have more information when something occurs, we had a very vague email, I had no idea what it meant, it was a page of nothing,” parent Lynn Roach said, WAGA reports.

Ford, who wrote an open letter to North Cobb students, said that now is the time for the community and school to rally around each other in the wake of the ugly incident.

"Perhaps as a community, we can begin discussions about the value inherent to restorative justice models at the school and district levels. That way, the victims and the offenders can be in dialogue and we can do more than slap a too-small band-aid on a gaping wound. Let's find a way to initiate some positive outcomes from this shameful incident. "

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