Principal Comments on Student Chant of Racial Slur (Update)

UPDATED at 10:25 a.m. Thursday ROCKVILLE, MD — Rockville Middle School students from various races — including African-Americans — were recorded chanting a racial slur on a bus, an incident that is offensive but one that will be used to teach students about race, says the school principal.

The blurry cell phone video recorded by a student doesn’t show any faces, but student voices can be heard in a sing-song chant that uses the slur.

Parent B. Jamar Long shared his concerns on Facebook, along with the video snippet his daughter captured. So far, it has been viewed more than 362,000 times and has more than 21,000 shares.

“So our daughter had to experience racism today on her school bus from Robert Frost Middle School in Montgomery County MD,” Long wrote on his Facebook page. “They are singing 1,2,3,4 how many [N-word] are in my store. I am outraged and I refuse to let this slide.”

Principal Joey Jones said in a letter to parents that a diverse group of students, including students who are African-American, Latino and Asian, said the chant. The bus driver stopped the bus and spoke to the students about the racially charged chant. Parents of the students have been contacted and disciplinary action will be taken in accordance with the MCPS Student Code of Conduct.

“This behavior is both offensive, inappropriate and does not reflect the positive values of our students and our school community,” said Jones. “While this experience has been upsetting, we will use this as a teachable moment for our community.”

»See the full text of Jones' letter to parents below.

In the coming days, he said, students, parents staff and the community will discuss issues regarding race and how to educate each other about race and cultures in the coming days, the principal said.

“As an African American educator, this incident is personally very disturbing and we must address this incident and issues of race so we all can move forward, together,” Jones said.

Montgomery County Public Schools officials said they are investigating the video, which is posted publicly on the FOX DC site.

A statement from the school system to FOX said:

"The school is aware and is investigating the incident. It was a Montgomery County School bus. They will be sending a letter out to their community today and making it clear that this type of behavior is unacceptable and does not represent the values of their school and community."

Letter to Robert Frost Parents