Aledo, Texas, an exurb of Fort Worth, has made headlines when multiple students from Aledo ISD’s Daniel Ninth Grade Campus partook in a “slave auction” via a Snapchat group. The group was initially named “Slave Trade” (complete with emojis of a Black man, a gun, and a white police officer), with the name later being changed to “[N-word] farm” and then “[N-word] auction”. Within the group, one student was being “sold” for $100, whilst another student was being “sold” for $1 due to his hair.
One parent, Ella Bullock, said, “I was not shocked honestly because of the community we live in.” Eddie Burnett, president of the Parker County NAACP, has said, “My reaction is, 'What, again? Again?’ How many times we got to go through this? It’s just kids. They’re just playing. They don’t know any better.’ Well damn, teach them better.”
Multiple parents have written complaints to the Aledo Independent School District, but were unhappy when Principal Carolyn Ansley deemed the deplorable act as merely “an incident of cyberbullying and harassment”. In an attempt to stymie the anger of those parents, Aledo ISD superintendent Susan Bohn replied to parents via email: “There is no room for racism or hatred in the Aledo ISD, period.”
Although the district stated that disciplinary action has been taken, whatever punishments are levied aren’t specified to the public. However, the students who held the "slave auction” aren’t suspended or expelled. Coming Monday, it will be likely that civil rights activists and distraught parents will attend the school board meeting and bring up this gruesome, racist incident.
Eddie Burnett, president of the Parker County branch of NAACP, has a message for Aledo ISD administrators and will request to speak during public comment at the district’s next regular board meeting on Monday.
"You have to be unambiguous about what your policies are, what the rules are, what the consequences are and what the reason is for putting so much emphasis on it. You can’t be trying to excuse the behavior at the same time you address the problem. Because if you do you cancel that anything you’re trying to do," he said.
This, roughly a month after a black boy was forced to drink the urine of other students at a party in Plano and then was called racial slurs.