Racist text messages sent to Stoughton High School students and Black residents in several states
STOUGHTON - The racist texts sent to Black women, men and students in several states now includes Massachusetts.
Stoughton High school students
Six students at Stoughton High School received the spam texts Thursday, according to police.
"This particular text, in part, notifies the recipient that they have been "selected to pick cotton at the nearest plantation," the school department said in a statement Thursday night.
"This is part of an abhorrent nationwide trend. People from around the country have reported receiving this text, and others similar in nature, throughout the day today. The source of these text messages is unknown at this time. We ask if any student or staff member receives this text message or a similar one to report it to school administration."
Police said in a statement that some students of color were among the six who got the texts. They're looking into whether the messages were "targeted toward certain students." Anyone who received one should call Stoughton Police at 781-344-2424.
"We feel terrible for our students and our staff and families that have had to deal with this type of messaging," Stoughton Superintendent Dr. Joseph Baeta told reporters at a news conference Friday. "This is an intolerable way of targeting children, regardless of their age."
Racist text messages
CBS News found that the texts were sent to people in several other states including New York, Alabama, Texas, Georgia, Florida, Maryland, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Ohio.
"The FBI is aware of the offensive and racist text messages sent to individuals around the country and is in contact with the Justice Department and other federal authorities on the matter," the agency told CBS News in a statement. "As always, we encourage members of the public to report threats of physical violence to local law enforcement authorities."
"These messages represent an alarming increase in vile and abhorrent rhetoric from racist groups across the country," said NAACP President Derrick Johnson. "These actions are not normal. And we refuse to let them be normalized."
The Massachusetts Attorney General's Office had not received any complaints about the texts as of Friday. Anyone who has a complaint can call the office's Civil Rights Hotline at 1-800-994-3228.
"Profoundly disturbing"
Counselors were available for students and staff Friday at Stoughton High School.
"We understand that receiving a message like this is profoundly disturbing and can cause emotional distress and fear, especially for our students and staff of color. In no uncertain terms are messages like these acceptable. Stoughton Public Schools stands up against any form of racism, discrimination, or hate," the school department said.
"It makes me feel disappointed that people are sending these kinds of things to other people," said Stoughton High School sophomore Bryan Pintremann.
"We want our kids to know that they are safe at Stoughton High School, that we work really hard to make sure all of our students and staff feel safe at Stoughton High School and that we are here for them, we stand beside them, we stand against this hate and discrimination. It's not tolerated at Stoughton High School," said principal Juliette Miller.
How were phone numbers accessed?
Cybersecurity expert Peter Tran said social media accounts could be to blame for spammers getting the phone numbers and learning the recipients' race.
"When a social media app asks for generally a phone number attributed to an app, it also has a profile based on the racial profile," said Tran. "The social media sites, in the fine print, allows to resell to third party marketers and companies."
Tran said spammers will use artificial intelligence to group phone numbers based on race before sending the mass text. He said to sign up for the national Do Not Call registry and also suggested downloading apps that block spam messages, like Robokiller.