Tigard High School Students Walkout In Protest After A Classmate’s Racist Tiktok
2 min read
Tigard High School students have walked out of their classrooms in protest to a Tiktok video posted by a fellow pupil that features a string of highly offensive racial slurs.
At Tigard High School in Oregon, several fellow students were in anguish by the video and decided to protest.
What Was The Video About?
The Tiktok video was about various racial slurs. It shows a female student lying on the bed and explaining the various racial slurs that she uses for people of black, Muslim, Latino, and Asian descent. Whereas another student encourages her with the questions from behind the camera. This video went on viral and made several fellow students of Tigard High School angry. The students got really angry and decided to protest.
According to the online student publication The Paw of Tigard High School ‘the post has targeted no specific individuals instead targeted the communities as a whole.’
Walk Out Protest By Students
The Tiktok incident has prompted several students and they walked out of their classrooms in protest shortly on Wednesday after 11 a.m. They all gathered and then discuss their experiences of racism and discrimination at the school. Students walk down on the street in large groups shouting anti-racism slogans.
A student, Jordyn Smith told KGW that “you cannot walk even 15 feet without being called a racial slur. It is not OK at all to be called anything to anyone, the n-word, the monkey. It’s not OK to be called anything like it at all. “
It has been told by Rieke Smith, the Tigard-Tualatin School District Superintendent that the Tiktok video has left her in disgusting and disappointing feelings. She heard to the students, what they had to say. Rieke-Smith said that the safe spaces will be provided to the students by the school to discuss the incident as well as provide staff with training. So that they can help to recognize and stop hate speech and microaggressions. She even told the station “ It is a beginning of the much larger process to get at this issue. Also, perform it in a way to bring in everyone along with us.”
The superintendent of told KGW news that the school’s expulsion list is very tight and short. She could not recall the expulsion of students for hate speech. Typically, it is for violent threats or repeated acts. That demonstrates the student who doesn’t want to be a member of the community. Rieke Smith added, “ It didn’t represent what Tigard-Tualatin School District believes in.”
