OLATHE, KS – The Olathe School District is under widespread outrage after a white student repeatedly used hate speech, specifically the N word, against Black students with no repercussions from the district. The Black student, who self-identified to The Defender as “TJ,” received long-term out of school suspension (the student says he was told he couldn’t come back), for confronting the white student and engaging in a physical conflict.
The Defender’s Justice Reporter, David Brox, spoke with numerous students at Olathe West HS, where the incident took place.
Students say the white kid has repeatedly used and weaponized the N word. They also say he is well-known for spewing hate speech. TJ recounted reporting him for hate speech last year but no action was taken. TJ told The Defender in an exclusive interview, that he intentionally attempted to take the appropriate and proper course by informing the school administration of the white student’s continuous usage of racial slurs, but the district refused to take any course of action.
TJ told The Defender he has been charged with assault and battery. The white student however, received no punishment and in fact returned the next day with a “special escort” to each of his classes, and was also allowed to dress for Friday’s football game.
“I usually keep my calm, I’m usually cool, but when there’s so many cases with white kids saying the word, whether its hard R or not, people just using the word in general. People don’t even want to do anything about the word anymore, they just treat it like its a joke… you know when you try so much to get help for that word, you get sick of it. That anger just built up, like, yall didn’t want to do anything for me at the time, so I just felt like I had to take matters into my own hands.” – TJ
This is not the first time the Olathe School District has been under fire for allowing white supremacy and violent anti-Blackness to go unpunished. The embattled district made national headlines last year when a white student made an infamously viral homecoming post reading “if I was Black I’d be picking cotton, but I’m white so I’m picking you for homecoming.”
Most shocking of the “Racist Homecoming Poster” incident, was the school’s decision to ban a Black student from the building for the rest of the semester after the mother of the girl in the image said her daughter was unaware of what the poster said and that it had all been schemed up by a Black student.
Many additional students, parents and community members in the Olathe District have come forward in recent days to verify and provide The Defender with their own testimonies and accounts of racism in the district. Two students from Olathe West spoke to The Defender regarding the most recent incident.
This is a developing story.
