North Carolina High School Football Players Caught Using N-Word On Camera, Jeopardizes Entire Team
A video on social media showing a high school student athlete using a racial slur – the so-called “N-word” – and praising Donald Trump is causing shockwaves in a North Carolina community.
As The Durham Herald-Sun reports, an unnamed Jordan High School football and lacrosse player recorded a video of himself and another student, apparently recording a message to a female classmate. In the video, the unnamed student athlete makes a sexist remark, praises Donald Trump, and uses the racial slur. The other young man in the video doesn’t speak.
The athlete then sent the video to the classmate, who shared it on social media.
The video is causing outrage in Jordan, a rural community about 35 miles southeast of Raleigh.
Student body president Aminah Jenkins says that there will be protests and boycotts of football games if the student in the video is not punished.
“People are pretty upset, and they want something to be done. Our main concern is not his political views, it’s his views toward women and his use of the N-word that’s the main concern. That’s what’s got people so upset.”
And according to USA Today High School Sports, Jenkins isn’t willing to give the young man a pass simply because he may have, as some younger people oft do, acted impulsively and without thinking things through.
“I’ve never awoken and marginalized and offended an entire group of people.”
You can watch the video below, but be warned: it contains offensive language.
Jenkins and her supporters are calling for the player to be punished – specifically, she wants the athlete to be suspended from both teams for the entirety of his senior year and to forfeit any potential college scholarships.
Could student's N-word video cause a boycott of Jordan High School football and lacrosse games? https://t.co/zKvysJsNEH pic.twitter.com/iglqPmumOe
— Durham Herald-Sun (@TheHerald_Sun) August 1, 2018
However, that may not actually be possible. While some public schools do punish kids for what they do off-campus, in this particular case there may not be much for the school to act on. That’s because, as Durham Public Schools spokesman Chip Sudderth explains, the video was recorded outside of the school year, not with school equipment and not on school grounds.
Jordan Principal Susan Taylor, meanwhile, has been calling parents to discuss the video, saying that it does not reflect the values of its staff, student body, and community.
“When I was first made aware of the video, several actions took place and will continue. The actions were designed to investigate, address the behavior, plan for healing, and take steps to ensure that Jordan is a school in which all students are and feel welcome.”
As of this writing, the names of the students in the video have not been identified in the media.
