There was an abundance of hate speech on Twitter after Obama’s reelection, with people hurling violent and racial epithets. Many of those tweeters were teenagers whose public Twitter accounts feature their real names and advertise their participation in the sports programs at their respective high schools. Calls were placed to the principals and superintendents of those schools to find out how calling the president—or any person of color, for that matter—a “nigger” and a “monkey” jibes with their student conduct code of ethics.
We contacted their school’s administrators with the hope that, if their educators were made aware of their students’ ignorance, perhaps they could teach them about racial sensitivity. Or they could let them know that while the First Amendment protects their freedom of speech, it doesn’t protect them from the consequences that might result from expressing their opinions. (For example, an adult woman is currently being investigated by the Secret Service for calling President Obama a “nigger” and suggesting he be assassinated on her Facebook page.)
Additionally, several of the teens use imagery of their high schools’ sports teams on their Twitter accounts and Facebook pages. If nothing else, it’s reasonable to alert administrators to the behavior of the students who are publicly representing their schools.
Ricky Catanzaro plays football for Xaverian High School, a private Catholic prep school in Brooklyn, NY. Students who play sports there must sign an athlete’s contract that stipulates a promise “to be a worthy representative of my teammates and coaches, abiding by school and community expectations.”
The day after the election he tweeted, “No nigger should lead this country!!! #Romney” His Twitter timeline (since removed) revealed that “nigger” is a word he regularly uses in his day-to-day vocabulary. After other people tweeted their disgust at his comment about the president, Catanzaro responded to his black critics by referring to them as “slaves” and “cotton-pickers,” and noting:
While a call to the principal was not returned, an administrative assistant at the school said, “They are aware of [the tweets] and they are dealing with it.”
He must’ve been reprimanded, though, because later in the day Catanzaro tweeted that he was “in trouble” and claimed that his Twitter had been hacked.
His Twitter account has since been deleted.
Stehl Taylor plays hockey at Central York High School in York, PA. The school has a very detailed code of conduct that are outlined in its student handbook which students are required “to keep with them throughout the entire school day.” According to the handbook students are subject to suspension for “name-calling” or “making fun of personal characteristics such as race [or] ethnicity.”
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