A Black beauty school student claims the institution she attends in Chicago recently expelled her because she disagreed with their celebration of the Juneteenth holiday.
The female student went to TikTok to voice her frustrations about an incident that took place at her school where she is being trained to be an esthetician, a professional who specializes in skin beautification.
She attends Tricoci University of Beauty Culture, located in Northwest Chicago. It is one of two locations in the Chicago area and one of 10 locations in Illinois.
TikToker @geaux_kaay explained in the video that her school has meetings Monday and Wednesday mornings to discuss important topics about the school. This past Monday, June 12 the student said they discussed their Juneteenth celebration.
“The director at my school had an announcement for us. She said that ‘Monday we would be celebrating Juneteenth, but instead of celebrating it for what it’s for, we are going to celebrate it as a diverse day. Make it a diverse holiday,'” said the student in her TikTok video.
The TikToker said she had a private conversation with the director after their meeting on how the school intended to celebrate the holiday, but it didn’t go well.
“We went into her office, and I basically explained to her ‘Um, the way you worded it at the morning meeting today, I didn’t like how you said it because Juneteenth isn’t a diverse holiday. It’s not where we celebrate diversity. We celebrate African American independence,'” said the student. “And she was basically telling me ‘You need to mind your business because you don’t know what I have planned for Monday. We are a diverse school, so therefore we are going to celebrate this holiday as a diverse day.”
Juneteenth, also known as Juneteenth Independence Day or Freedom Day, is an annual holiday celebrated on June 19. Widely misunderstood as the date marking the actual end of slavery in the United States, it commemorates the day in 1865 that Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, and issued his General Order No. 3 enforcing the emancipation of enslaved African-Americans in the Lone Star State.
Legal chattel slavery continued in other areas of the United States such as Kentucky and Delaware until the 13th Amendment was ratified on Dec. 6, 1865.
The aspiring esthetician stated she returned to the classroom and her classmates, who agreed with her, asked about the details of the conversation before the director came back to the classroom to speak with her again. This time, she explained, the director said she wanted her to leave.
“And I just asked her ‘You want me to go home don’t you?’ She said ‘Yeah get your stuff and leave. You will be suspended,'” the beauty school student said.
The student said that she and the director got into an argument. The director threatened to have her arrested if she didn’t leave immediately in front of her whole class.
“She completely humiliated me and told everybody that she was suspending me, and I had to go home,” said the student.
The student said that the director then told her that she was expelled from the school.
“I’m like ‘You’re dead wrong. Your feelings are hurt because you didn’t like what I had to say, and now you want to expel me and still try to make me pay for a school I didn’t fully get to attend. That’s not right,'” stated the student.
The student said that she attempted to talk to her teacher so she could explain what was happening and the director proceeded to grab her backpack and yelled at her to “get out” of the building.” The student explained that the incident also took place in front of clients who the school uses to help the students practice their craft.
“She told the clients ‘I’m trying to remove this racist out of my building. She won’t leave, and she is a racist,'” the student said in the video.
The student said she proceeded to leave the building but noticed the director was on the phone with the police. She mentioned that the director told the police that she attacked her and refused to leave.
The student didn’t mention whether she was arrested in the video.
The TikTok video received over 175,000 likes and over 9,000 comments and was shared more than 6,000 times on the student’s personal account.
Atlanta Black Star spoke with Nate Swanson, CEO of Tricoci University, and he confirmed that the incident took place but said the student was suspended not expelled. He also sent a statement that disagreed with the events the student claimed took place in her video.
“Unfortunately, her description of events is not accurate, including the interactions with our school director, who is African-American, and our plans to honor this important holiday,” the statement reads. “Tricoci is proud to celebrate Juneteenth and the abolition of slavery with its students, faculty, and staff. Over the past 3 years, more than 5,000 students and staff have celebrated Juneteenth on campus with us, as it is a holiday we take very seriously.”
Chicago recognized Juneteenth as an official holiday for the first time in 2022. It was also first marked as a state and federal holiday that same year.
“As an educational institution, we require all our students to follow our code of conduct and act professionally to maintain a positive educational environment,” Swanson continued. “We welcome open dialogue and value different viewpoints, but ask that conversations be respectful. We are also required maintain and protect students’ privacy with respect to their academics, which includes issues relating to our code of conduct. Accordingly, we are unable to provide further details in response to your inquiry.”
The student has not responded to several requests for comment from Atlanta Black Star.
