Several Baltimore area schools are drawing headlines and the condemnation of city officials after a number of photos taken at off-campus college Halloween parties show students and alumni dressed in racially insensitive costumes.
Among the most controversial outfits worn is one depicting the late Freddie Gray, who's 2015 death while in the custody of Baltimore police led to weeks of civil unrest that would prove partly responsible for the momentum that has built up to the NFL protests of today. The image shows a White graduate from the Boys’ Latin School of Maryland in an orange prison jumpsuit with Gray's name written on the back.
On Monday, October 30, Roland Park Country School and the Gilman School both acknowledged that they too had received reports of students appearing on social media with offensive costumes on. One particular picture shows members of both student bodies posing with a teen wearing an orange jumpsuit with the words "N****s broke out" on the back. Meanwhile, a St. Paul's school has issued a statement reinforcing that it “does not tolerate any form of hate or discrimination” after an image of one of its students with a racial slur and swastika on his back reared up.
Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has also spoken out, as it turns out that she is the mother of a Roland Park student. “It will undoubtedly be a rough day for my daughter tomorrow. Praying I find the words to help her make sense of this nonsense,” Rawlings-Blake wrote, in a Facebook post in which she expressed that she is “Heartbroken. Disappointed. Frustrated” over the news.
Source: nydailynews.com
