Administrators with a Catholic high school located on Long Island have given the boot to four students after finding two brought a Confederate flag to one school-sponsored event and the other two posted a blackface photo on a social media site.
The expelled students at St. Anthony’s High School — two male seniors and two female sophomores — weren’t named, and their incidents were reportedly separate, NBC New York reported.
The boys were accused of bringing the flag to a mid-April school event. Teachers immediately confiscated it, and the students were suspended, NBC reported.
Two days later, school officials found that the two female students posted a photo of one of them wearing blackface on a social media account. The photo was accompanied by what administrators said was racist language, NBC reported.
Principal Gary Cregan said in a followup letter to parents that the Confederate symbol on the flag was “designed to revive past injustices or to inflame discrimination or racial intolerance [and is] completely unacceptable and profoundly offensive,” NBC reported. “St. Anthony’s will always demand acceptance and respect for all races, religions and cultures.”
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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