Principal on racist incident: 'We're going to face this'
About 400 people flocked to the Washburn High School auditorium in Minneapolis on Wednesday for a forum about a racist incident at the school, MPR reports.
Parents, educators, activists and neighbors came to hear more about what the school was doing in response to the Jan. 11 incident, which was captured on security cameras. School officials say four students wrapped a string around a dark-skinned doll's neck and hung it in a stairwell, and an image of the doll was posted online.
"I was incensed, outraged, embarrassed, humiliated and angry that this would happen at our diverse and rich school," Washburn Principal Carol Markham-Cousins said, MPR reported. She flatly called the incident "racist and wrong."
Officials have not said how the students were disciplined, citing privacy laws, Fox 9 reported.
Markham-Cousins spoke with the students and their parents. "They are full of remorse," she said.
Some students said they would appreciate an apology from the four students, the Star Tribune reports. Others said the problem deserved a deeper examination of racism and stems from students not understanding history, the newspaper says.
"We've already began to look at our social studies standards to see where we can do a better job...in our schools," Superintendent Bernadeia Johnson said, KARE 11 reported. Here's KARE's report from the meeting: