Racist Social Media Post Shocks Council Rock Parents At Start Of School Year

NEWTOWN, PA — Parents in the Council Rock School District were startled after a recent petition by North students seeking to change their mascot from an Indian prompted a counter account on Instagram that posted an offensive photo of a Ku Klux Klan member, suggesting that should be the school's new mascot.

The petition to change Council Rock North's mascot was launched in late August and has more than 300 supporters.

The disturbing photo, which depicts a KKK member and says "Suggestion 1: Council Rock Heros (sic). With this dope a** mascot," was shared by an Instagram account with the name CRNMascot2.

The account, which has since been deleted or made private and is no longer available for public viewing, also posted other "suggestions" for mascots, including an image of a Hispanic person with the text "Council Rock Tacos" underneath, and an image of an African American person with a gun saying "Council Rock criminals."

Parents, shocked by the images, began circulating the posts on social media last week, as Council Rock students were preparing for the start of a new school year.

Council Rock Superintendent Robert Fraser did not immediately return a request for information, but he did circulate a "message of inclusion" to the entire school community on Sept. 1.

It's not immediately clear if his message was prompted by the racist social media post, but the text in part reads:

"We embrace and value diversity, just as we embrace and value differences. We look for and expect this culture to permeate our entire school community. That said, as we have learned the hard way, we are not immune to acts of hate. One assurance I will make as we venture into the new school year is that our schools are no place for actions or words that are racist, sexist, anti-Semitic, homophobic, or the like."

He goes on to ask parents to monitor their children's social media accounts.

"We are well into an era where students’ online activity sometimes differs from and takes precedent over their offline behavior. Past incidents have brought about both school discipline and police attention, depending upon the circumstances. Perhaps worse yet, one’s digital footprint can never be completely “erased” from the eyes of future employers and/or institutions of higher education. We all bear a level of responsibility in setting our students up for success in this regard, as we desire for no student to find themselves on the wrong end of a social media incident that can quickly go viral and take on a life of its own," he said in the letter.

The petition to change the mascot calls for the Council Rock School District to initiate a vote to gauge student opinion on the Indian. You can view the full petition here.

Patch file photo