April 15, 2021 Tatjana Muskiet
The humanitarian crisis caused by volcanic eruptions on the Caribbean island of St Vincent will last for months, a UN official has warned. Didier Trebucq said nearby islands including Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda could also be badly affected. He said the UN was setting up an international funding appeal. About 20,000 people have been evacuated from their homes since La Soufrière volcano began erupting last Friday. It had not previously erupted since 1979. Mr Trebucq, the UN co-ordinator for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, said clouds of ash and smoke were continuing to pour from the volcano every day. “We are expecting that continuous explosions and ash fall will continue over the coming weeks in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, but also in neighbouring islands such as Barbados, which has also been severely affected… as well as Saint Lucia and Grenada,” he told reporters.(BBC)…[+]
Group members “bid” $100 on one Black student and $1 on another. Someone remarked they would have paid more for the latter student if “his hair wasn’t so bad.”
An Aledo ISD spokeswoman said the district disciplined the students for racial harassment and cyberbullying. She also said district officials are deeply saddened that the incident inflicted tremendous pain for the victims and their families, as well as other students of color.
Eddie Burnett, president of the Parker County NAACP, told WFAA he’s tired of officials brushing off racism as insensitive jokes.
“‘It’s just kids. They’re just playing. They don’t know any better.’ Well damn, teach them better,” he said.
Texas students punished for racist incident
Texas students punished for racist incident
Washington, Apr 15 (Prensa Latina) The Aledo Independent School District, in Texas, announced it had disciplined students from its Daniel Ninth Grade Campus after internal investigations involving law enforcement found they had bullied and harassed other students based on their race.
The Snapchat groups were called Slave Trade, and other titles with racial slurs. In the chats, students from Aledo, Tex., pretended to buy and sell their Black peers, according to screenshots given to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Local activists provided the Star-Telegram with screenshots of chats showing a group using racial slurs with the words Farms and ¨Auction.¨ The group had also been named with emoji of a Black man, a gun and a White police officer.
USA TODAY
A North Texas school district is condemning the acts of students who reportedly assigned prices to students of color in a Slave Trade auction Snapchat group message.
The Aledo Independent School District released a statement on Monday denouncing the actions of students at the Daniel Ninth Grade Campus who were bullying and harassing other students based on their race.
The name of the group message changed multiple times, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported, using a racial slur in the name in many instances.
In the group message, one student said a student was worth a dollar and the price “would be better if his hair wasn’t so bad,” according to a photo of the group chat shared with USA TODAY. The group message also had emojis with a police officer pointing its gun at a Black farmer.
April 15, 2021 Tatjana Muskiet
A group of school students in Texas have been disciplined for setting up a “Slave Trade” messaging group that assigned prices to their black peers. Messages shared on the Snapchat app at a school in Aledo said one student was worth a dollar and another “100 bucks”, the New York Times reported. The school district conducted an inquiry and found “racial harassment and cyber bullying” had occurred. But some parents accused authorities of failing to respond appropriately. School students at the Daniel Ninth Grade Campus in Aledo had posted messages on a group Snapchat that was reportedly labelled with terms such as “farm” and “auction”. Ninth graders are typically 14 or 15. One message said the price set for one student “would be better if his hair wasn’t so bad”, according to the New York Times, which said it had seen screenshots of exchanges.(BBC)…[+]