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Read this blog and comments. Pretty sad stuff.

Archie Moses

Archie Moses

Well-Known Member
https://larzcosby.wordpress.com/

Alta High School students targeted with KKK Hoods and Hail Hitlers’.

I am currently a junior at Alta High School. I’m bi-racial. I have been attending Alta High School since the fall of 2010. I have experienced several occurrences of racism since then but it was the usual ignorant rants that mindless people say.
On March 17, 2011 @ approximately 9:00am the school was gathering for our annual spirit bowl. I woke up excited because the first spirit bowl I attended was fun but this time I was going to actually participate.
While walking across the gym floor to find a seat, a student wearing a white hood with holes for eyes was jumping around. When his friends saw that I had noticed they began pointing and laughing. I immediately demanded that he remove the hood. He then approached me and began dancing in my face and taunting me. I snatch the hood and threw it behind me and his crowd of friends became very displeased with this. I found a seat, finally, and sat down next to a friend. She, her sister and her friend all asked me if I was ok. I told them I was ok, and then began to contemplate how I was going to handle the situation.
I felt numb! I had no idea that the KKK was part of my high school spirit bowl.

Later during the assembly he donned his hood again. When he got the opportunity, he began running in circles while showing his support for the general Nazi cause, hailing Hitler. I was immediately reminded of a recent movie on Netflix that I watched with my father. The images of the Nazi party marching while the people hailing Hitler as they strolled by.
From my observation nothing was said or done but later a group of people’s names, including the racist supporter, were called to the administrative office.
After the spirit bowl I walked to my Spanish class and was appalled that he was sitting in class. His friends were laughing and bragging how funny it was. I then realized I needed to talk to my father as soon as possible. I asked my teacher if I could go to the restroom, took the pass, and when I got outside I called my father. He told me to go to the office immediately and tell someone about my situation. I had no idea he was preparing to join me.
We all know that racism is a problem and I had heard a series of stories underlying race problems in Utah. I am now convinced that this is true. Who in their right mind would plan to blatantly enforce their hate for others in a large gathering in a public school? How is it a joke? How is that funny?
This incidence has made a lot of people really show their true feelings at Alta High School. I was so surprised to find that there was a large group of supporters for the student and his racist demonstration. They even are so brazen to express their view on Facebook. They are so entrenched with their cause that they are willing to show their name and face in support of hate.
If your child has to attend Alta High School and they are nonwhite just know that the chances of being treated unethically are very high. My experience is that to be a non-white individual is a bad thing at Alta High School. Some people who are non-white have conformed, so they do not have to deal with this type of bullying.
My father was not surprised by what happened. He grew up in Utah and remembers that school administrators, teacher, parents, and students felt free to use the N-Word and other forms of emotional mistreatment. He is writing a book about his life and he says he is pulling back the curtain on this type of hatred. He also informed me that a lot has changed and there are people who will not stand for that behavior. My parents have taught me to love people and respect everyone but no one can prepare you for this kind of treatment/torment.
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KrazeeEyezKilla said:
Are you referring to Trout? Dude is shaped like freakin' Grimus.
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Grimus.jpg


Grimus_demo.jpg
 
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Kids being stupid.

Reading the language of the blog, it's pretty easy to tell that the incident was a bit more innocuous initially than the individual would lead you to believe. However, kids of that age have no idea that there a tremendous difference between perception and reality, as well as not understanding that the excuse, "it's just a joke," isn't a veritable explanation. I imagine the kid found the fact this this poster was very offended by the mask, which was apparently worn because of school pride day (juniors wear white), and when the poster reacted the way he did, the guy decided to play up the character for laughs.

Stupid, but not surprising. What IS surprising is that while I found that information in the comments section of that blog, I had to wade through some really nasty stuff. 'Twere I an administrator at Alta High School, I'd be incredibly pissed at the type of comments high school students are making.
 
I'm pretty shocked by this. I mean I understand that you're going to have morons wherever you go, but I'm a recent graduate of Alta ('08) and I found it to be a very accepting school. Sure, we didn't have the diversity that a Cottonwood Heights has or several other schools out of state, but there were many non white students in my graduating class alone. Although I will admit there were few African-American students at my school, they were beloved by the student body and there were several prominent, successful students of Hispanic, Samoan, Asian and Indian descent including a handful within student government, sports teams, and extracurricular groups all across the school. Sure, there were many cliques, but Alta was a school where just about everybody got a long with everybody, teachers and administration included. It's sad to see this, but I'm guessing it's nothing more than a small group of pathetic, low life morons that were brought up to hate by their families. This kind of behavior is appalling. I can assure you that if the administration got wind of this, some serious punishment would have been laid down on those students. They don't tolerate that kind of stuff.
 
And for the record, I just talked to a friend from Alta and there's a whole police squad there and several investigators. This is getting taken care of. Alta isn't that kind of school.
 
Man, I got a lot of neg rep for making this thread. I guess we should brush stuff like this under the rug and pretend it doesn't happen.
 
Dtol17 said:
And for the record, I just talked to a friend from Alta and there's a whole police squad there and several investigators. This is getting taken care of. Alta isn't that kind of school.
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Apparently they are. Where was anybody when all of this was going on? How was a kid wearing an offensive KKK hood in a Spanish class?

Either a lot of this story is fabricated, or the snobs are getting police involved to pretend like they care.

Alta is no different than any other high school. Just because you're rich doesn't make you any less of a douche when you're a teenager. In fact, the odds often increase.
 
unluckyseventeen said:
Apparently they are. Where was anybody when all of this was going on? How was a kid wearing an offensive KKK hood in a Spanish class?

Either a lot of this story is fabricated, or the snobs are getting police involved to pretend like they care.

Alta is no different than any other high school. Just because you're rich doesn't make you any less of a douche when you're a teenager. In fact, the odds often increase.
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My sources at the school (students and faculty) say that a lot of it was made up by the student with the blog. He blew something out of proportion. There was bad blood between the students making fun and the victim, but there was no KKK hood involved. It happened during a school assembly, the spirit bowl, which is one of the biggest events in the school during the year. In the spirit bowl, each class wears a different color representing Alta. The sophomores are red, the juniors white, and the seniors black. We get VERY involved in this and kids are decked from head to toe in their color to show their pride. This student saw an opportunity to strike back, so he accused these kids of doing something that they didn't, although they were teasing him, just not for the reasons he accused them of.

Unfortunately, the situation has been escalated because the student took this to his father instead of the administration, who was never made aware of the extent of things, just that there was some teasing involved. Oh and the student isn't black, for what it's worth. I know there can still be discrimination involved regardless of the races at hand, but this is being made to be something that it's not.

Alta is not just like every other high school. Believe it or not, different people can be brought up with different values. Alta is a community, and this kind of stuff just doesn't happen there. Sure, there's going to be idiots that slip through the cracks, but it's the moral values that are taught in schools like Alta, Bingham, Jordan, and Brighton that separate them from the Cottonwood Heights, Valley, and schools throughout the country that are faced with much more discrimination and racism than we can even comprehend. Don't pretend for a second that the Alta's of the world are anything like those that suffer much worse. We are privileged to live in the region that we are because we were taught, as a community, to be better than that. Sure, there's not the diversity here that there is...well just about anywhere else, but that doesn't mean we're snobs and douche's.

Regardless, the student that did the teasing was suspended, the student that was "victimized" got his media attention, and Alta will continue to go on as a class act of a school and the tight knit group they have always been and will continue to teach the values they have stood by since opening. That goes for the majority of the District as well.

And there are going to be rich students at any school you go to, so I don't know why you're singling out Alta here. There are far fewer "snobs" than at Brighton, Bingham, or Juan Diego, and none of those schools are bad either. It's just a large group of kids that, for the most part, all get along whether they're rich, poor, white, black, latino, indian, asian, live on South Mountain, Pepperwood, or in White City. Our schools have character.
 
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