In the wake of a widely-circulated, racist, photoshopped social media image released by a now-expelled Columbus North High School student, Mayor Jim Lienhoop and the Columbus City Council will add its denouncement of the action to that of the leadership of Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp.
And the leader of the Columbus/Bartholomew County Area NAACP Branch will begin meeting regularly with school corporation leaders to monitor race relations and foster student awareness of everything from diversity appreciation to proper channels to voice concerns and complaints.
School corporation leaders also agreed to gradually find ways to better familiarize all students with the role of Kimberly Easton, the corporation’s director of multicultural diversity.
Those were three of the major elements that came from a public meeting Thursday spurred by the social media post of a photo of two black Columbus North football players running from a photoshopped, robed Ku Klux Klan figure.
The father of one of the black students said privately after the gathering that his son was “disappointed” when he first saw the picture, doctored by a white student who is his friend. The dad asked that his name not be used in connection with the incident to spare his son more discomfort.
The meeting, hastily called on Wednesday after the image circulated on Facebook and elsewhere, drew 42 people, including BCSC Superintendent Jim Roberts, and Bill Jensen, the school corporation’s director of secondary education. Four Columbus City Council members: Jerone Wood, Tom Dell, Grace Kestler, and Elaine Hilber, all attended.
“Our common message will be, ‘We want to denounce this (act) until our last breath,” Dell said.
For more on this story, see Saturday’s Republic.
