Racist ‘promposal’ sparks complaints from Columbia County community

EVANS, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - A racist “promposal” shown in a Facebook post has sparked a larger conversation among Columbia County parents and school alumni.

Some people are questioning how the district responds to these issues.

Some school alums told us unfortunately, these types of incidents aren’t anything new.

“I was really shocked to see the post. But also, I was not shocked that it came from Evans High School,” 2018 alumna Amanda Crisp said.

Last week, Crisp came across the post and called it disappointing.

The post was from a parent of an Evans High School student, and it shows a Snapchat picture of another student’s prom proposal sign.

The sign appears to read: “If I was black, I’d be picking cotton, but I’m white so I’m picking you for prom.”

“There’s bullying in schools but you don’t expect, like, to see stuff like that especially now like, it’s 2021 like they need to do something,” Amber Bell said.

Bell is also an Evans High alumna but from 2017. She says she wasn’t shocked by the sign.

“Whenever I went to school there, like I noticed like there’s a lot of the kids, they’re like super racist and inappropriate,” she said.

“I think that they do have a tendency to sweep issues like that under the rug,” Crisp said.

According to the school district, the incident was addressed as a disciplinary matter, but they could not legally say what consequences the student faced.

Superintendent Dr. Sandra Carraway said in a statement:

“This was a social media post, not at school, that we became aware of last week. As a school district, we do not condone or tolerate such racist comments or offensive behavior and violence of any kind. Students who post these types of messages, or reproduce them, violate the Columbia County Code of Conduct and are subject to disciplinary measures to include loss of the ability to participate in extracurricular activities such as prom, sporting events, school privileges, graduation, etc. and suspension or expulsion from school.”

Carraway says students and parents are required to read and sign the code of conduct.

She also says every school has something called PBIs in place.

It’s a system meant for social, emotional and behavioral support.

She says when a student’s behavior disrupts school, officials take steps to address the behavior to help everyone involved.

According to Evans High School Principal Michael Johnson, in a Facebook post, he said racist comments and offensive behavior are not condoned.

Punishment includes up to 10 days suspension, a loss of extracurricular activities, and more.

But some people feel like punishment isn’t enough.

“Maybe they’re lashing out because they think actions like that are okay. Maybe they’ve been taught that, and that’s, we need to figure out where this disconnect is,” Crisp said.

In light of this incident and other racial incidents in recent weeks, a group of Columbia County parents planned an event to voice their opinions outside the county Board of Education today. However, that protest was postponed to another day.

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