An unspecified number of students, including football players, have been suspended from Seattle’s Chief Sealth International High School in connection with threatening text messages talking about violating female students, according to reports.
Screenshots of text messages sent in a group chat consisting primarily of sophomore boys on the school’s football team were posted on Instagram, that’s how parents and other students found out and alerted administration.
Sexual Violence Aimed At Female Students
“I saw the screenshot; it was basically like, ‘Oh, we want to bend her over and we want to rip her pants off,’” a freshman student said to Fox 13 Seattle.
“Just wrong,” another freshman told the station. “It’s creepy, it’s weird, it’s predatory.”
Last Friday more than 100 students walked out of school to protest what they feel was inadequate punishment by the school and not enough being done to prioritize the safety of students.
Students who participated gathered on the football field for more than two hours demanding action. The students protesting claimed officials are not doing enough to stop what they call an ongoing problem of harassment and sexual assaults at the school.
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School Principal Ray Morales wrote a letter, which can be found on the school’s website, where he said he takes the safety and well-being of the students seriously.
One-Off Incident Or A Pattern Of Dangerous Behavior
But a senior at the school wrote an email in response to the West Seattle Blog that contradicts Morales’ assertion.
“I am a 12th-grade student at Chief Sealth International High School. At our school, some of the boys on our football team and in general have been known to sexually assault, catcall and harass women, as well as yell slurs and hate-crime queer and other students,” the anonymous student wrote. “The only thing that has happened to these boys, up to this point, has been a slap on the wrist, and events like this continue to occur.”
