Local authorities and a civil rights group are investigating an incident at a North Carolina middle school in which a student wrote a racial slur on a Black girl’s arm.
The slur was written on an 11-year-old girl’s arm during a yearbook signing party on May 31 at Southeastern Stokes Middle School, WXII 12 News reported.
The principal called the girl’s mother, Selena Ford-Scales, the same day.
“He was like, ‘The student wrote the N-word on your daughter,’ said Ford-Scales, according to the local outlet. “At that point, I was about to lose myself.”
Ford-Scales said a school staff member took a picture of her daughter’s arm before telling the 11-year-old to wash it off.
“It was in big, bold, black letters on her skin,” Ford-Scales said. “I told myself, ‘Let me take a look at this picture. So when I saw it, my insides started boiling, and I started shaking.”
Administrators showed Ford-Scales the picture but declined to give her a copy. After conferring with school officials, she filed a report with the Stokes County Sheriff’s Office.
“I’m like, ‘So I can’t get the picture? I can’t get the statements.’ What can I get at this point?” Ford-Scales questioned. “Pretty much nothing.”
The Stokes County School District also declined to share the picture with WXII 12 News after the outlet filed a public records request. In a statement, the district called the image “confidential” and stated it’s “part of an ongoing investigation of student conduct.”
District officials did say that the student who wrote the slur received the “appropriate discipline per the district’s Code of Student Conduct.” No details were released on what specific disciplinary action was taken.
However, Ford-Scales said that when that student returned to the school days after the incident, she hit her daughter.
“I asked her, ‘Did anybody do or say anything at all to you?'” Ford-Scales said. “She said, ‘Momma, the little girl hit me in my back.’ I started shaking. I said no.”
Stokes County Sheriff’s Office authorities referred both incidents to Juvenile Justice, a North Carolina Department of Public Safety department that runs intervention programs to reduce juvenile delinquency.
The local NAACP branch called for further action, including a meeting with school administrators.
“Once we investigate it, we’re going to send it to our state office,” Stokes County NAACP President Wesley Durrell said.
Ford-Scales said that while her daughter is physically OK, both incidents left her with mental and emotional distress.
“When she goes back, she’s going to be nervous because she’s going to have to watch her back,” Ford-Scales said. “She doesn’t know if that same kid is going to be at that school.”
