ALEDO, Texas (NEXSTAR) — Students at a North Texas high school are being disciplined over a mock slave auction they ran on Snapchat.
Civil rights activists told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that a group of students at a ninth-grade school campus in the Fort Worth suburb of Aledo set up a “slave auction” of Black classmates on the social media platform.
The Star-Telegram acquired a screenshot showing a Snapchat group with names that included “Slave Trade” and one with a racial slur.
Someone posted that they would pay $1 for a peer, while someone else said in the chat that they’d spend $100 for another person, the Star-Telegram reported.
Aledo school Superintendent Susan Bohn said district officials learned over two weeks ago of students cyberbullying other students based on race.
According to the Star-Telegram, Principal Carolyn Ansley wrote in a letter sent to parents the week of April 5 that “an incident of cyberbullying and harassment” led to conversations about how inappropriate and hurtful language can impact others.
The district didn’t specify what discipline has been dealt out to the students.
Eddie Burnett, president of Parker County NAACP, said he plans to take up the matter with the Aledo Independent School District board.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
