Jonathan Bachman/Reuters
A video that circulated on social media over the weekend showed Alabama high school students using racial slurs while talking about Jewish people and African-Americans. “Fuck n****rs, fuck Jews,” one boy can be heard saying, according to AL.com. “Jews are fine because they’re white,” a girl reportedly said. “We just need the n****rs gone.” The teenagers reportedly attend schools in Hoover, which is a suburb of Birmingham. Hoover City Councilman Derrick Murphy told the website he was “saddened by the words and thoughts of these children.” “There is no excuse for hate speech; or hate for that matter. This does not represent our city,” he said. Superintendent Kathy Murphy also said she was “disappointed” in the students. The website reports that any disciplinary action against the students would have to take into account that the events happened off campus.
A father who said his daughter, Mackenzie Stewart, was in the video released a statement saying he believed she was acting “completely outside of her character” in that moment. “We are all truly sorry for Mackenzie’s actions,” Gordon Stewart wrote. Unique Simpson, an African-American student at a local high school, said she was “so sick and tired” of dealing with racism that she feels has not been handled well by school administrators. “I’ve been through so many personal experiences,” she said. “This needs to stop.”