A Black Lives Matter protest at Dunwoody High School is planned for Monday, Dec. 18, before classes following a social media post that went viral alleging racial discrimination on the cheerleading squad.
A flyer put out apparently this weekend by some students about the protest states: “Dunwoody High School Black Lives Matter, Monday at 7:30 a.m. — First Bell, Wear BLACK Bring, RESPECTABLE posters, Wear jackets, *bring letters of instances teachers or students used your race and cultural background against you.*f”
The protest is in response to a social media post alleging a black cheerleader on the DHS squad was purposefully cropped out of a photograph went viral over the weekend.
DHS Principal Priscilla Cole sent an email to parents over the weekend acknowledging a protest was planned for Monday morning in response to “a viral picture went out that was mischaracterized which involved our football cheerleading squad and it has impacted our school community.”
The letter and flyer was posted to DeKalb County School District board member Stan Jester’s blog; Jester lives in Dunwoody.
“The viral picture” Cole mentioned is from a Dec. 12 Twitter post that went out including two photos of the DHS cheerleading squad, one picture with the entire group and another with sole black cheerleader cropped out.
A person stating she was a friend of the black cheerleader noted her friend being cropped out of a photo and stated “I think we all know the reason whyte.” More than 2,000 people have retweeted the post and more than 4,000 people have “liked” it.
Cole stated in her email to parents that the “the nature of this incident has led some students to exercise their right to protest and they plan to hold a peaceful protest Monday morning, December 18, 2017 from 7:30 a.m.-8 a.m. To ensure the protest is peaceful, we will have additional officers on campus as well district support.
“Students who are not participating in the protest should enter the school immediately upon arrival to school as they normally do. Please be mindful of the current carpool lane rules as you drop your student(s) off. Instruction will continue as planned so that students can prepare for their upcoming finals,” Cole stated.
Cole added, “Lastly, please be reminded that students cannot wear any clothing that may cause a disturbance or disruption in the school. This includes, but is not limited to clothing with references to drugs and/or alcohol, confederate flags, black lives matter, white pride or power etc.”
In his blog, Jester wrote what his understanding of the incident is.
“A black cheerleader was auto cropped out of a cheerleader squad picture when the photo was formatted for printing by an online system,” he stated.
“Some students sprung into action blaming the cheerleader squad for racial bias. A protest for this non-event is planned for tomorrow morning and sanctioned by the school district,” Jester stated. He posts a photo of what appears to be the uncropped and cropped image that was sent to Walgreens:
Jester then adds what he says is “The Whole Story.” From his blog:
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For nearly 20 years the Dunwoody varsity cheer team has created a photo collage for the coach.
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A parent used a professional camera on senior night and took lots of photos. These photos were given to a student and that student uploaded these photos to Walgreen’s photo site for printing. The Walgreens software automatically cropped every photo.
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Once the printed photos were picked up, the cropping issues were noticed and those photos that had girls cropped out were not used for the collage.
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The collage was presented to the cheerleading coach at the banquet and every cheerleader is in the collage multiple times. The unused photos were placed on the coach’s desk at the school.
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Cheerleaders are now being harassed online and in person.
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All the cropped photos were set aside so they wouldn’t be in the collage. The cropped photos were not used anywhere.
This is totally upsetting and out of control. If you notice in the cropped photo 4 white cheerleaders were also cropped out by Walgreen. This is beyond upsetting that these children would take this to a racist position when it was done by a machine. What are these children being taught? If you go around looking for any reason to be a victim, I promise you anyone can find a victim moment. Even if it’s totally false. This poor teacher is being brought in front of the board for doing nothing wrong and these kids are destroying a innocent person’s reputation. If people misuse the Black Life Matter’s protest, then over time that important protest will lose it’s ability to make change. Kids and parents supporting this protest this morning without listening to the truth, don’t truly value the Black Lives Matter movement and are doing more harm than good to a very important message. Shame on them for rushing to judgement!!
Since the BLM movement is based on lies, like “Hands up, Don’t Shoot” (never uttered by Michael Brown) expect protests at every opportunity.
Well it isn’t based on lies as it’s roots are from speaking out against racism and history of police brutality since the 60s. Evidence backs them up.
My daughter is a DHS cheerleader and would be the first to step up and protest racial inequality. This is not that.
My daughter has been a friend to the young lady who posted this fabricated story and has now learned the painful lesson that people you trust can let you down.
I have a feeling you are just a troll looking for attention, but I maybe wrong. Can you give us some evidence this is a lie?
I’m proud of these students who have taken a stand. Their names and faces aren’t hidden, unlike the adults who take issue and the opportunity to negatively comment on this peaceful protest. If you’re listening and paying attention, the bigger issue is the blatant racism and disrespect of the non-white students at Dunwoody High School. It’s not just about a picture. “What are the children being taught?” Well 1) To stand up and speak up for what is right and 2) Racism comes in many forms. The bigger question is what are the children being taught who casually spew the racist slurs in the hall and in the classrooms, and who don’t stand up for what is right?
Well said
As always, the real racists are those who make excuses for those who refuse to use their God given talents. Take the time to actually understand what MLK was saying and what Walter Williams and other current folks are saying. Care enough about the children to get married before you have them and work daily to support their dreams.
Do they not have White Lives Matter there for the poor white girls cropped out of the left picture. Shame on walgreen for causing racial issues at this school make 1 black and 4 white victims out of these kids who just want to cheer
The school disallows “Black Lives Matter” t-shirts as disruptive. That alone is worth protesting.