Disturbing video shows racism on full display at Grand Prairie ISD school
GRAND PRAIRIE (CBSNewsTexas.com) – A disturbing video has surfaced from a high school in Grand Prairie that shows racism on full display in a classroom full of students.
It has Grand Prairie's NAACP chapter calling on the district to take action against the students involved and any teachers present.
With 15 academies tailored to give career-focused students professional training in more than a dozen fields of study, John Dusbiski Career High School in Grand Prairie is one of the district's finest achievements.
Sometime last week, a video was posted showing as many as a half dozen students in a Dubiski High School classroom saying the n-word out loud in front of other students, writing the slur on a banner with the word hate next to it as well as spelling it and repeating it several times during the 36 second clip.
CBS News Texas spoke to five Black students outside the school who asked not to show their faces or use their names.
"I feel like we are owed an apology," one student said.
They say what they saw on the video was behavior that's become all too common.
"Dibiski is a career high school, they focus on their student's future and it's a school of choice and I don't think their actions represent Dibiski at all," one student said.
"What kind of shocked me that, even in the school like this we still deal with these sorts of things," another student said.
A Grand Prairie ISD spokesperson told CBS News Texas that the video would be addressed next week when classes resume after spring break and that "we will fully investigate this situation and hold those involved accountable."
Grand Prairie's NAACP President Angela Luckey says that statement is insufficient.
"I want the principal to be held accountable and the teacher that was in the classroom, I want that teacher to be fired," Luckey said. "I want the students that participated in the video to be suspended and removed from this school campus."
Students say watching the video was bad enough but now it's even more troubling to read social media posts from their classmates defending it.
"When they are commenting the post, people are speaking out saying it's normal, it's OK," one student said.
The students say the boys shown saying the slur are all Hispanic and that school leaders should work harder to encourage the racially mixed student body to support each other on the same path to success.
"I know they can do it. I know our school can make change I believe in our school our school will make change I know they will," said another student.
According to the state education code, the students could be sent to an alternative school or even expelled as a form of discipline if Grand Prairie ISD sees fit.
