OLATHE, Kan. — Olathe South High School's principal sent a letter informing the school community of a racist incident.
The incident and the school's response were announced in a letter to students, staff, and families on Thursday.
"We wanted to address an unacceptable situation that occurred at school involving students using a racial slur," explained Principal Dale Longenecker in the letter. "I want you to know that racism, hate speech or slurs of any kind are not tolerated at Olathe South."
The letter did not say what happened, who was involved, or the punishment from the school.
However, one student is coming forward to say he was the target of the alleged racism.
“All this stuff started at the beginning of the semester in January in my jewelry class," said Kirubel Solomon. "These three white boys from the start of the semester, they looked at me, they saw that I was Black, and they just started targeting me, harassing me.”
Solomon's father, Solomon Tegegandeska, was upset over the incident.
“I was mad because I always, I strongly believe there’s no difference between colors. There’s no difference between Black and white. We’re all created equal," said Tegegandeska.
Solomon, a sophomore at Olathe South, explained why he didn't come forward until the students allegedly gave him a piece of metal with the N-word carved on its surface.
“It took a long time for me to build up the confidence in the system to want to report it because I feel like it was three of them, it would just be he said-she said, and I didn’t feel like I would get true justice. So, until I got that metal piece, I reported it," said Solomon.
KSHB asked the Olathe School District if the metal piece was part of the racist incident. The district said it was investigating, but emails and phone calls were not returned.
Jahmari Clifton is a friend and schoolmate of Solomon's and said he has also dealt with alleged racism at Olathe South.
The 16-year-old said he wants school leaders to do more.
“I shouldn’t be having to go home, sit in my room and be like, this teacher needs to do this, this administrator needs to do this, this kid needs to stop doing this," explained Clifton. "Teachers and administrators should be keeping an eye open to where they’re not having to sit in meetings with the minority of students and asking them what they need to see from them. They need to know what they need to be doing and that comes with education, having teachers and administration with better backgrounds nipping racism and just smart comments from students in the bud.”
Olathe South's principal said time would be set aside next week to "address the trauma that hate speech can cause for our students and to reinforce that this behavior has not and will never be tolerated at Olathe South."
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