Earlier this morning on Friday, January 13, a tweet was published with photos that featured two Buena High School sophomores on Buena’s campus. These photos were edited to display racist images.
The photos were posted with the message: “Hey @BuenaHighspirit are you ok with students on ur water polo team being extremely racist on school grounds and proudly sharing the images?”
The user who posted the photos claims to be under the impression that the school administration wouldn’t take action against the photos unless they were public.
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Principal Bobbi Powers of Buena High School addressed the issue in a phone call that went to all Buena families.
“Dear Buena families, this is Principal Bobbi Powers. Today it came to my attention that racist images shared via social media by two Buena students. While the inappropriate images feature Buena students and were taken at Buena High School, the images and what they symbolize in no way reflect the opinion, spirit or philosophy of our school or school district. Rest assured anything to do with racism or discrimination of any type will not be tolerated. Appropriate disciplinary action was quickly taken against the students involved. On the crest of this three day weekend, celebrating the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. please take the time to discuss with your child the importance of respected every person regardless of their race, religion, gender or other characteristics. Buena will continue to be a school where all students are accepted, respected and feel safe. Thank you and enjoy your weekend.”
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Ventura Unified School District Superintendent Michael Babb sent a similar email to all Ventura Unified staff.
“Colleagues,
Today, it came to my attention that racist images had been shared via social media by two VUSD students. While the inappropriate images featured Buena students and were taken at Buena High School, the images and what they symbolize in no way reflect the opinions, spirit or philosophy of our schools or school district.
Please know that messages promoting racism or discrimination of any type is unacceptable and will not be tolerated.
On the crest of this three day weekend celebrating the life and work of Martin Luther King Jr, I wish to express my full commitment to a district and a world where all people are accepted, respected, and safe.
Thank you,
Michael Babb”
Editor’s Note: The Foothill Dragon Press is a public forum, and comments and Letters to the Editor are always welcome. However, as per our comment policy, any offensive or overly profane statement, or any that are deemed a personal attack, will be deleted.
A previous version of this article contained the names of the students in the photos and the original tweet. The names were removed at 8:24 p.m. on Jan. 13 and the embedded tweet was replaced with blurred versions of the images at 3:52 p.m. on Jan. 19.
Dawn • Jan 17, 2017 at 4:47 pm
I find the fact that the pictures can still be accessed on this cite extremely offensive. You can cover the incident in words and spare the public these horrific images. You say you’ve got the right as a journalist? Well, you have fallen off the map of ethics. These kids are being scrutinized and will pay the price of their actions. We should not be dwelling on them–it simply perpetuates the abhorrent actions. They are two kids in a population of over 1800 on the campus–hardly representative. Ethics would tell you to focus on how the Buena community has come together to show their outrage against the actions of these two individuals and how hard they are working on sending out a positive message of tolerance and diversity to the greater community. Please consider removing the pictures. The warning does not help.
Cherie • Jan 16, 2017 at 12:24 pm
I almost vomited when I saw the image. I was hoping for a more outraged tone from the district, frankly. “Enjoy your weekend” would not have been my sign off…but that’s because I work myself into a tizzy fairly easily! This is a difficult event and issue to cover for the FDP.
Velasquez • Jan 16, 2017 at 7:50 am
There is hope in this young Leadership. You are admiringly BRAVE, Dragon Press, don’t give your voice, we are counting on you.
J Student • Jan 16, 2017 at 12:11 am
Yes I believe posting the pictures is a bad idea since it shows the face of the person twitting, I just don’t think is safe. I notice there are other images that make everything worse. I would remove the twitter account.:\
Natalie (Buena) • Jan 13, 2017 at 10:08 pm
This is disgusting. Also why did you say “that may be triggering for some viewers?” It should be triggering for all viewers. How horrible…anyway, you guys probably shouldn’t have put the actual pictures on here either, just describe it or something, it’s best for not a lot of people to have to see that even with the warning. Good, quick coverage though, and I hope with MLK day this coming weekend we can reflect and advocate, all things considered.
Foothill student • Jan 14, 2017 at 10:33 am
Why should the images be censored? Historically speaking, I will concede that the crackdown on lynching wasn’t actually very long ago. But today I don’t think anyone would deny that in terms of racial consciousness, whites are more weak, confused, alienated and outnumbered than they ever have been in the past so there is no danger in revealing these images to the public. In fact, I dare say that if you were smart it would be greatly to your benefit if things like this received greater public attention so that your Jewish overlords in the media and the profession of law could throw up a big hullabaloo about how there are still such evil and wicked white racists out there and in doing so create the proper mood of sympathetic outcry and shrieking condemnation in order to garner support for more ‘hate crime’ legislation–nothing more than a furtherance of the theft of our liberty. If you do not want to see what it is the student are in trouble for, don’t bother. Don’t try to police the minds or enforce your moral code on the rest of us.