KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Students, parents and the Shawnee Mission School District are speaking out after a Shawnee Mission East student was the target of a racial slur and attack by another student on Nov. 15.
According to students who witnessed the altercation, this incident started after Brey'anna Brown, a Black sophomore, confronted a separate student about using racial slurs.
Moments later, as everyone was walking away, a white male student told her to “shut the f*** up.” He then proceeds to yell more racial slurs at her when she asks him what he said.
That's when the two moved toward each other, and the fight started. The fight left Brown with a broken nose and suspended.
"I feel like outside of myself for doing what I did," Brown said. "I’m upset that I got suspended."
Brown says she didn't expect the fight to happen, so every decision she made was a split-second one.
"The thought in my head was either, I protect myself, or I run away from it or I get beat up, and I don't know what else to do, so I chose to stand up for myself," she said.
The incident led dozens of Shawnee Mission East students to organize a walkout Monday where they held signs demanding "justice" for their classmate and expressed their frustrations with the district. A number of the signs also read “protect Black women” and "protect students of color."
Despite having friends and other students' support, Brown is not eager to return to school.
"I'm kinda scared to go back because I don't know what to look forward to," she said.
KSHB 41 contacted the district for a statement on the incident.
"The District is saddened by the incident," the statement read. "While we cannot share specific information about the incident or the District’s response, we do want to reassure the community that we take proactive measures to create a safe educational environment where every student feels a sense of belonging. This includes extensive work to support diversity, equity, and inclusion [smsd.org]. Unfortunately, children make big and small mistakes every day. We will continue to respond to those mistakes in an equitable and consistent manner, and our efforts to educate our students about how to treat each other with dignity and respect will be ongoing."
The district also said it cannot comment on punishment of any "specific details related to the incident."
Brown's mother, Linyka, picked her up from the school after the incident occurred.
As someone who attended school in Johnson County, she says the incident did not surprise her. As a parent, seeing her daughter's wounds was the worst part.
"It really hurt my heart and made me mad," she said. "It hurt my heart for my daughter because I didn't want her to have to ever go through that."
The student who assaulted Brown has been charged with felony aggravated battery in relation to the incident.
The Black Student Solidarity Network is organizing a county-wide "mass protest" in support of Brey'anna. The group included a list of demands, including:
- A formal apology and admission of wrongdoing from the school for suspending Brey'anna
- Expelling the attacker
- Revising the school/district's zero-tolerance policy
The protest is scheduled for Thursday evening at 5:30 p.m.
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