This racist petition that made the rounds among students at Arundel High School. Image courtesy of WBAL TV.
Administrators at a Maryland high school are condemning a racist petition asking students to join a movement advocating for white supremacy over African-Americans.
The racially offensive petition circulated Arundel High School late last week before being confiscated by school officials, the Capital Gazette reported. Two students had signed the petition, titled the “Kool Kids Klan,” and administrators said the individuals involved were being questioned.
The incident prompted school staff to contact Anne Arundel County police, but spokesman Lt. Ryan Frashure said investigators met with the county State’s Attorney’s Office and concluded that no crime had been committed.
“I am shocked, dismayed and, quite frankly, angered that such a piece of material would be produced, much less appear in one of our schools,” Superintendent George Arlotto wrote in a letter to parents condemning the document. “It is unconscionable to me how anyone could believe this material is anything but horrifying, and it has absolutely no place in our schools or school system.”
The petition reportedly used racial slurs to describe Black people and referenced derogatory stereotypes.
“This is a PSA for the true-blooded Americans out there,” it read. “As they always have and will continue to do, lowly African-Americans … have stolen from the supreme white race. The inferiors have claimed the word n-gger as their own.”
“As everybody knows, white people invented the word n-gger, and as such, it is only fair that we get to use it,” the petition continued. “After all, negroes invented rape, stealing, basketball and bastards, and they get to use those all the time!”
“Do your civic duty, and make sure everyone knows their proper place below whites,” it concluded.
County Executive Steve Schuh echoed Arlotto’s rebuke of the racist document, adding that schools should be safe spaces that welcome diversity and reject racism.
Bob Mosier, spokesman for Anne Arundel County Public Schools, told the Capital Gazette that Arlotto had spoken with leaders in the African-American community, including Rev. Stephen Tillett, president of the local NAACP, about their concerns stemming from the incident. Tillet said that while the petition was disturbing, he wasn’t all that surprised.
“I’m not surprised that children who have been immersed in hate, whether it was publicly or at home, would then bring that into their own environment,” he told the news outlet, seemingly referencing the divisive rhetoric spewed during the 2016 presidential election.
He went on to urge school leaders to address racism and bigotry systematically, adding that school officials can “no longer view and categorize” such incidents as isolated occurrences.
The Capital Gazette reported that the Arundel petition comes on the heels of a string of racially charged incidents at Anne Arundel Community College that included racist graffiti and swastika drawings. In November, a Pennsylvania school district also discovered a racist Twitter account titled “Kool Kids Klub@PalmertonKKK” following the election.
