It never fails. Every year, high school students gather for class photos. And every year, at some high school, somewhere, some conglomeration of assholes lines up to do something stupid, offensive and racist.
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This time itโs at Escondido High School in Southern California, where students were given T-shirts with letters on them to spell out approved words for their class photos last Friday.
You know where this is going.
According to ABC 10 News, a group of nine students thought it would be hilarious to take their own separate set of photos where they lined up to spell slursโaccording to their social media accounts, where (you guessed it) the photo were promptly shared, the students spelled out โfaggotโ and โnigger.โ
Escondido Union High School District confirmed that the photos posted online were real, posting a statement on Facebook (h/t Huffington Post) calling the photos a โpoor decisionโ that โis not aligned with Escondido High Schoolโs culture, values or history.โ
Current students and alumni were not amused about the photos.
โIt hurt me personally,โ Escondido High School graduate Cade Pannell told ABC 10. โWhether they thought it was a joke, itโs not. And if you do think itโs a joke, I think thatโs very ignorant of you.โ
In the statement, Escondido Principal Adriana Lepe-Ramirez emphasized that the high school โprides itself on inclusion and embraces diversity.โ Racial minorities make up 82 percent of the student body at Escondido High, according to U.S. News and World Report. School officials say โappropriate disciplinary actionsโ will be taken against the students, though itโs unclear at this point what those actions will be.
Of course, unless thereโs actual consequences for the studentsโ actions, all that embracing of diversity is just lip-service.
According to the Huffington Post, the Escondido Police Department says the high school received an anonymous โthreat of violenceโ during the schoolโs Friday football game they believe was tied to photos. The game wasnโt cancelled, and the event concluded without incident.
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