Investigation continues into racial shirt incident

CHAMBERLAIN — The superintendent of the Chamberlain School District said Thursday that an investigation involving disruptive shirts worn by six students Wednesday is continuing at the school.

“The issue has polarized the community, and much will need to be done to overcome the actions taken by these students,” wrote Superintendent Tim Mitchell in a press release. “The facts will need to be determined and distributed and much healing will need to take place to allow for the entire community to come back together in a positive way.”

Four students left the school with parental notification Wednesday after homemade shirts with the words “White Pride World Wide” and “cracker” were worn to school. Two other students changed their shirts and stayed in school. All six of the students are white.

The shirts, which also featured a cross design commonly used by white supremacy groups, were deemed to be a violation of both the school’s dress code and a rule against disruptions to the school’s learning environment.

Mitchell said there’s a strong focus on finding out the inspiration behind the creation of the shirts. He wrote that one student claimed to have overheard American Indian students state that white students had more privileges in the school.

“They wanted to make a point that it was not true,” Mitchell wrote.

The same student said the group was not aware of what the symbol on the shirt meant, Mitchell wrote.

The first link to result from a Web search Thursday for “white pride world wide” was to www.stormfront.org, a forum featuring a topic titled “What’s wrong with good oldfashioned racism?”

“We all know, and science has proven, that blacks and browns are less intelligent than whites,” writes forum member “white_usa_.” “Blacks, browns and others are obviously lesser people.”

In Chamberlain, Mitchell stated that class meetings would take place Thursday to discuss the shirt incident.

“There was an incident at our school that has many students upset,” Mitchell wrote. “We are going to work through this and resolve the issues in a positive manner.”

According to published statistics from last year, Indians make up approximately 32 percent of the student population in the Chamberlain School District, compared to the 55 percent of students who are white.

Tags: our towns, news, chamberlain, racism