Video of racial harassment in high school stirs controversy on social media

Anna Iovine
Updated

A video of a high school student harassing another in the hallway is making the rounds on social media.

Tyler Goodell, student at Wake Forest High School in Wake County, North Carolina, shared the video on Instagram:

This is my buddy Micah. We have been through a lot together and he has always had my back and helped me out. Yesterday, he defended himself and his heritage. The white kid has been using racial slurs and black jokes since the class started two months ago. But recently he started taking it too far. He told Micah, " you should name your kids convict and crack head, because that's what they're gonna grow up to be". I don't know if it's just me or not but that upsets me a lot. And it's sad to hear that he left it all alone because the teacher didn't do anything about it and was just as bad for ignoring the behavior in the class. But yesterday it was taken too far, they started arguing back and forth to each other, then the white kid pulls out his phone and shows Micah (and the class) a video of him shooting sawed off shot guns, and saying "I'll kill your whole family, your mom and your sister, i don't care if you're from Chicago I'll be the one to kill you". This also infuriated me quite a lot, this is absolutely ridiculous that no one has done anything about this and let it go as far as it has. So he left the class, being followed by a friend who was trying to calm him down, then the white kid comes out into micahs face and calls him a dumb n*****. This is where Micah walked up to him and pulled him down. And then he proceeds with the racism and says to Micah "f****** black piece of s***. I can not believe the teachers, and bystanders did nothing. The teacher then comes over and says "it was just words, that he had no right to defend himself, and his heritage, and told Micah not to touch her. She also told Micah "you're a punk if you hit a girl". Micah is now suspended for 10+ days and is being charged with bullying and assault on the student. Micah has the biggest heart a human can have in the world. And after all of this has happened, the white student is uncharged, and free, no trouble at all. All I ask from you, if you're reading this, is to defend my friend, and to bring notice to the administration.

A post shared by wfhs (@tyler.goodell) on Mar 3, 2017 at 4:36pm PST

Goodell's friend, Micah, was berated by another student. He was told things such as, "You should name your kids convict and crack head, because that's what they're gonna grow up to be." While according to Goodell he is often harassed, one day it was apparently too much.

After being called racial slurs, Micah started to fight back. He was suspended for ten days for bullying and assault, while the other students were not charged.

Goodell also shared the story on Twitter:

The tweet and video gained thousands of retweets and likes. The Twitter account for Wake County Schools has received backlash and calls to do something about Micah's situation.

According to the News and Observer, Timothy Simmons, Wake County Public Schools chief communications officer, said the school is aware of the situation. He said, though, that "Federal student privacy laws prohibit us from discussing details of individual cases."

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