Investigation into racist videos leads to discipline against Jackson students
JACKSON TWP. − A video with three Jackson High School students saying racial slurs sparked a massive online backlash, accusations their school district was racially prejudiced, some national media coverage, a school investigation and a demonstration by students in the cafeteria.
On Tuesday — 12 days after the first of a series of racist videos featuring students came to the attention of Principal Matt Ziders — he gave an update to the school board before about 140 people in the high school library.
"We've used words such as appalling and reprehensible. Really (there's) no adjective to describe that's strong enough in my opinion," Ziders said. "It was upsetting members of our school community."
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Ziders said he reviewed eight videos or Snapchats in the past 10 days. He said five of those videos took place off school property and three of those videos were shot on school property. Among the five videos shot off school property was a year-old clip with three Jackson High girls laughingly saying a racial slur, and an adult woman also speaking in the video.
For the students who took the videos with racist slurs on school property, Ziders said, "We took swift action and those students did receive appropriate school consequences." Apparently, one of those videos showed a boy wearing a Jackson High hoodie saying a racial slur in a school locker room.
The district, citing student privacy laws, is not identifying the students, where on school grounds the videos were recorded, their grade levels or the type of discipline they received.
Ziders said the district could only discipline students for shooting videos with racist slurs off school property if they were athletes or took part in a school extracurricular activity or they used school-issued devices. That apparently was not the case.
He said all the district could do was "work with those families." He did not specify what that meant.
Later, a district spokesman clarified that Ziders was referring to an unknown number of videos featuring eight Jackson High students. Five students who shot videos off school property were not disciplined, and three students who shot the videos on school property were disciplined. The exact number of video clips posted was not clear.
The principal said the first video featuring students saying racist slurs along with a parent posted on social media first came to his attention on April 13 through an anonymous tip. He said other videos later emerged.
Superintendent Chris DiLoreto on April 18 issued a statement saying the district found the content of the videos "reprehensible and troubling," it did not tolerate discriminatory harassment and "our school administrators look forward to continued conversations with our students and opportunities to learn and grow from these teachable moments.”
Mike Peterson: 'That's not our school. That's not our family.'
Four people also spoke at the board meeting to express their outrage at the videos. Three of the speakers defended the district, saying it was not a racially prejudiced district and community.
Mike Peterson, the defensive line assistant coach for the Jackson High School football team who is Black, said it was hurtful to see three young girls in one of the videos say a racial slur, "an ugly, ugly word," and not understanding that it was the word members of racist mobs said to Black people as they were lynching them. He said he hated any use of the word, even in rap lyrics. He said it hurt even more that he knew one of the girls in the video and her "amazing" family.
Peterson, 56, said it also disappointed him how adults on social media viciously attacked a 14-year-old girl they didn't know, as well as those attacking the Jackson community.
The coach said when he was a young man, he had once hated white people because a Black friend of his had been killed by white gunmen. But his father challenged him, saying he was stereotyping an entire group of people. Peterson said he learned the worst response to racism was prejudice.
Peterson said while there may be some individuals with prejudices, "You know what, you just keep loving those people. Point it out when they do wrong. But you keep loving them. And you remember this. That's not our community. That's not our school. That's not our family. If somebody does something wrong, it's the individual. ... We all fall short. We all will have biases that we have to work out. But this is an amazing community."
The audience applauded, including members of the school board.
The next speaker, Ethan Harrer, president of the Jackson High School senior class of 2021 who is white, said it irks him that some people are blaming the videos on the district's educators and administrators. He said the stereotype of the district being prejudiced is not true.
Harrer said he had done stupid things when he was a student.
"If people had ridiculed me for those things, my life would be ruined," he said. "As to actionable steps, we can be mentors to the youth. We can be mentors to our friends. To the community. We can step away from the online. And the internet. And we can truly become ourselves in the community. Ask people how they're doing."
Donald Childress, a bus driver for the district who is Black and whose three children have attended Jackson schools, said he and his wife moved to Jackson Township 39 years ago.
"All I heard about is don't move to Jackson, they're racist," he recalled, adding that his Black real estate agent refused to show them homes in Jackson Township and warned them "they're racists out there. You won't be accepted in Jackson."
Childress said as a youth wrestling coach he developed relationships with the families of school board members.
"Is Jackson racist?" he said. "Heck no! We've got people who hate, of course. But you've got to learn to love, too. ... Everyone in this room has said something that would be considered racist if it was on video. So don't be naive about that. Including myself. ... When someone says something negative about someone else, another race, religion whatever, stand up. Don't be afraid to stand up. Don't just laugh it off. ... This is a great community. Lord willing, I'll live another 39 years in this community."
Jackson Township resident Kevin Preston, who is Black, found the district's response to the videos lacking. It's not clear if he heard Ziders' presentation.
Preston told the board the girls saying the racist slurs are "regurgitating a mindset that is not being addressed in the school systems that I see. The prejudice and racism, it not being on the (board) agenda today, is even mind-blowing to me when the news has this going viral about the situations in this school. ... I'm wanting to know the steps that are being taken to fix this issue, address this issue. Are there any things being done?"
Ziders also mentioned an unsubstantiated threat that was posted on social media on the evening of April 17, hours after some students staged a demonstration against the videos in the cafeteria. A district spokesman said those students ”were given a safe space for their right to expression.”
But it's not clear if the response to the videos is related to the threat. Ziders said Jackson Township police did not determine the threat to be a substantiated threat, so the district did not cancel classes on April 18.
Principal Matt Ziders: '... Our goal is to help support all of our students and to heal from this moment.'
"Over the past week and a half, I've got to talk to dozens of students, parents, and community members about these videos and what's going on in our community," Ziders said. "And I've been encouraged to hear a lot of different perspectives at that time. We've already developed a principal's leadership team to discuss and improve our school culture. We met once already and I'm already looking forward to continued meetings with them. And really our goal is to help support all of our students and to heal from this moment. And to help our community grow."
Ziders went over the efforts the district is making to teach its students to be "digital citizens" and learn how to navigate issues online such as privacy, security, their digital footprint, media balance and well-being.
"And I can tell you personally as a parent of six children, three of whom are enrolled in school right now, sixth grade, fourth grade and second grade, (the videos were) certainly a topic of discussion at our house the past two weeks as I'm sure it was for many of you," Ziders said. "These resources really helped to broach that conversation and help us in our home."
It's not clear how many attended the board meeting Tuesday to hear the discussion about the videos. Many of the students were there to get credit for attending a government meeting for their government class requirement. Others were spring-season student athletes who were getting recognized for their achievements before the board.
Reach Robert at robert.wang@cantonrep.com. Twitter: @rwangREP.
This article originally appeared on The Repository: Jackson High School, Ohio, students disciplined for racist videos
