An African-American waitress at an IHOP in Sherman, Texas got a less-than-pleasant start to the new year after stumbling upon a disgustingly racist message at one of the tables she served on New Year’s Day.
Tenasha Ballard said she had just got done serving four high school students at the local restaurant and left to retrieve a to-go cup for one of them, according to local station KXII-TV. When she came back, the boys were gone. That’s when she noticed a pile of pancakes cut into the letters “KKK.”
“At the moment, I’m like I don’t believe this,” Ballard told the news station. “I’m seeing this wrong. So I went to the tables at the front and said what do you see on this plate? What letters are these? And they said ‘KKK.’ And I said I thought so.”
Ballard snapped a photo of the offensive message and posted it to her social media, sparking outrage among concerned locals. She noted that the teens appeared to be students from nearby Bells Independent School District, as they were sporting their letterman jackets.
“I just can’t get over it because these kids we were just joking,” she said. ” … For them to come out in their school colors and then disrespect someone because no one is going to do anything, then they knew that they could do that. They felt like they could.”
Bells ISD superintendent Joe Moore has since issued a statement in response to the students’ racist message, saying the district “regrets” their actions.
“[Their behavior] is in no way reflective of BISD nor the community of Bells,” Moore wrote in a statement to KXII-TV. ” … As I understand, it took place at 2:30 a.m. and it was not a school-related event nor were the students under BISD supervision in any way. In addition, its worth noting BISD students are awarded letterman jackets for participation in numerous organizations, not just athletics. Again, we regret this occurred and we wish Ms. Ballard the very best.”
The superintendent added that the four boys involved have since stepped forward and are working on an apology for Ballard, the entire Sherman IHOP staff and their classmates.
Ballard said the boys’ offensive action was the second against a server that night, who was called a racial slur when she offered to get orange juice for a customer. She said she shared the photo not only to address racism but to address the disrespect servers experience on a daily basis.
“Respect people. It’s one of the things that I was always taught,” she said. “If you don’t have anything nice to say don’t say it. Don’t spell it in food. Don’t say it.”
