A group of cadets at the Citadel, one of the nation’s military colleges, have found themselves in deep trouble after photos surfaced of them engaged in a vile “prank”:
In a statement from The Citadel's Lt. Gen. John Rosa, the cadets "were singing Christmas carols as part of a 'Ghosts of Christmas Past' skit. These images are not consistent with our core values of honor, duty and respect."
Rosa goes on to identify the student in blue as an upperclassmen. Rosa said suspension proceedings had begun for the students involved, but the investigation was ongoing.
The woman who shared the photos says the cadets pleaded with her to remove them:
In the Facebook post, a girl was reportedly "threatened, harassed and offered money from numerous Citadel Cadets to take it offline in order to not 'ruin their lives.'"
She made a bold decision to share them because they were so offensive:
A woman tells us she posted screenshots of videos showing the cadets wearing hoods on Facebook after seeing them on a messaging app called Snapchat.
The woman, who does not attend the Citadel, said she posted the screenshots on Facebook because they offended her.
"Whether they are supposed to look like ghosts or not, we all know what they look like and they know what they look like and it's just rude," she said in a Facebook post.
The Citadel has its own chapter in the history of slavery in the United States. It began as the South Carolina State Arsenal after a slave rebellion was squashed:
Seven years later, the state constructed an arsenal just around the corner to house arms and ammunition. They wanted to be prepared the next time their black population conspired an insurrection. Soon, in an agreement with the War Department, this location transformed into the South Carolina Military Academy–also known as the Citadel. The crown jewel of southern militarism, then, was in part birthed as a way to protect whites from the type of racial threats the AME Church posed.
The Citadel shared addressed the embarrassing photos on their Facebook page:
