Minority students at a Georgia high school reportedly spelled out a racial slur for black people during the halftime show of a Friday night football game as a joke.
Two black students, one Asian student and one Hispanic student were part of the incident they thought would be funny, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Monday. Some people who played brass instruments similar to tubas assembled themselves to spell out “coon” using instrument covers.
“The covers spell out BRONCOS and some of them feature our Bronco mascot,” a letter from Brookwood High School Principal William Bo Ford Jr. sent to parents, students and community members on Saturday said. “Our band does not wear these covers on the field because they shield the sound and because during the halftime show our band members move around the field and do not stand in the same order as they do in the stands.”
The incident occurred during a football game between Brookwood and Lakeside high schools, the Ledger-Enquirer reported.
What is really going on??? High school halftime show included racially insensitive term??? The madness must be stopped already. https://t.co/ts2f1pekoW
— deliaray (@deliaray) November 5, 2018
“After extensive interviews with many students, we have determined that three seniors intentionally planned and executed the use of the sousaphone covers to spell out a completely unacceptable, racist term,” Ford Jr. said in the letter. “The fourth student, a junior, who carried one of the letters spelling out the word, appears to have gone along with the plan at the last minute. However, all four of the students knew what was going to happen and knew what they were spelling out during the halftime show.”
The football game was part of “Senior Night,” according to the letter. (RELATED: School Band Performs Mock Gunpoint Scene Days After Police Officers Are Shot)
“Not only was the appearance of this term during our halftime show hurtful and disrespectful to audience members, it also was disappointing, as it does not reflect the standards and beliefs of our school and community,” Ford Jr. wrote.
Brookwood will be reviewing its halftime procedures along with taking disciplinary action against the students involved with the incident, according to the letter.
“Contrary to some rumors circulating, the band and the band director will NOT be disciplined for what happened,” a Brookwood spokesperson told The Daily Caller News Foundation over email. “Because of privacy laws, we are not permitted to discuss disciplinary action taken against students.”
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