Thread: Majority-white high school’s Trump pep rally has rivals crying racism

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Majority-white high school’s Trump pep rally has rivals crying racism

September 12, 2016 | 2:48pm


Students at Colleyville Heritage High School in Texas pose with a sign depicting a border wall during a
Donald Trump-themed pep rally on Sept. 9. Photo: Twitter

School officials in Texas apologized Monday for a Donald Trump-themed pep rally featuring a sign depicting the border wall that the presidential candidate wants to build between the United States and Mexico.

Students at Colleyville Heritage High School in the Grapevine-Colleyville Independent School District posed with Trump-themed signs before a football game against Trinity High School of the Hurst-Euless-Bedford Independent School District on Friday, setting off allegations of racism after pictures appeared on social media.

“This is disgusting,” one Trinity alumnus wrote on Facebook. “I remember other high schools being snobby and backhanded about our socioeconomic status when I was at Trinity High School but this is just too far.”

“On behalf of everyone here, I’m sorry,” Colleyville Heritage High School principal Lance Groppel said in a statement obtained by The Post. “We made a mistake and we have to learn from it going forward. While I believe it was not the intent, I do believe that it is important to have a full understanding of the impact that comments can have on others.”

Groppel called Trinity High School principal Mike Harris early Monday to personally clear the air.

“This is a learning opportunity for our campus,” Groppel’s statement continued. “We are hopeful that the students will be able to learn more about one another and it will lead to understanding, healing and ultimately forgiveness.”

Rick Hadley, spokesman for the Grapevine-Colleyville Independent School District, told The Post that themes for pep rallies are approved prior to the start of the school year, adding that individual banners or signs are not approved. Friday’s theme was “Make Colleyville Heritage Great Again,” a reference to the school’s lack of success against state powerhouse Trinity.



But Hadley acknowledged that theme was perhaps not the most appropriate given the differences between the schools. Hadley said 58 percent of students at Colleyville are white, while just 36 percent of students were white at Trinity during the 2014-15 academic school year, the Dallas Morning News reports. Trinity is also listed as the most diverse public high school in Texas, according to Niche, a startup that ranks US schools.

“I would say certainly not,” Hadley said when asked if the disparities between the two schools were taken into account prior to the pep rally. “I can tell you this, though: There was never any intent to offend with the theme of the pep rally, nor in the signage. However, we do recognize in hindsight that it offended some people and that it could offend others.”

Hadley continued: “We hope to move this forward and make it a positive. This wasn’t thought through properly, so this hopefully this will give us a chance to learn from it.”

Exactly who made the sign remains unclear, Hadley said. In general, cheerleaders make the signs prior to pep rallies, he said.

In a statement to The Post, officials from the Hurst-Euless-Bedford Independent School District acknowledged high football rivalries are “alive and well” across Texas.

“Students often play off of current events during pep rallies, and this seems to be the case with Colleyville Heritage High School,” the school district said. “Hurst-Euless-Bedford ISD and Grapevine-Colleyville ISD have always had a very positive working relationship and will work together to resolve this unfortunate issue.”

Grapevine-Colleyville staffers reached out to district administrators immediately to offer an apology, according to the statement.

“When situations like this arise, we as educators see these as learning opportunities and are committed to teach our students how to respond when something is perceived to be negative,” the school district said.

http://nypost.com/2016/09/12/majorit...crying-racism/

Did the Trinity side of this not know that "trumped" is a word in the English language? A legitimate word that means you've been bested, out-done, won and were victorious?

trump1
trəmp/
verb
past tense: trumped; past participle: trumped

(in bridge, whist, and similar card games) play a trump on (a card of another suit), having no cards of the suit led.
beat (someone or something) by saying or doing something better.
"taste trumps most if not all other factors when consumers choose food products"
synonyms: outshine, outclass, upstage, put in the shade, eclipse, surpass, outdo, outperform; More
beat, better, top, cap;
informalbe a cut above, be head and shoulders above, leave standing
"by wearing the simplest of dresses, she had trumped them all"

https://www.google.com/search?q=trum...utf-8&oe=utf-8

Why do school officials apologize when no one did anything wrong to begin with?!!