A white Mason High School student was featured in a short video filmed at the Warren County school Monday and posted on Twitter and other social media accounts by area teens.
The male student makes a series of racist slurs toward African-Americans in a 30-second response to being asked about Black History Month.
The student, said Mason school officials, will not be identified due to student privacy laws, but he will be punished.
“This afternoon at about 1:30 p.m., our high school administrative team was alerted to an offensive video that contained racial slurs from a Mason High School student at school today,” a statement posted hours later on the Mason Schools’ website stated.
“While the district cannot discuss individual student discipline due to (student privacy law) restrictions, racial slurs and discriminatory language are a violation of our student code of conduct. All reports of such behavior are investigated fully and would result in disciplinary action.”
“We are grateful to the students who reported this situation. We want our classroom conversations to stand up against racism and discrimination, and to offer messages of hope and resilience. Sometimes those conversations occur naturally within our curriculum, and other times they arise unexpectedly through student concerns, comments, or behavior,” according to the district’s statement.
In January, a white teacher’s comments to a black Mason Middle School student about being “lynched” by his white classmates drew a national outcry.
Issues of race also came to the forefront at nearby Kings Schools in early January. High school students were banned from a recreational basketball league for jerseys with racial slurs written on them. A Kings school board member then resigned, saying his son was on the team.
Our media partner WCPO-TV contributed to this report.
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