This is from the Startribune newspaper. Outside of MN you need a subscription
ST. CLOUD, Minn. – Dozens of Somali students poured out of Tech High
School here around noon for the second time in a week, saying they were
outraged that the administration had not done enough to stop classmates
who taunted them for being terrorists, tried to pull off their hijabs
and regularly hounded them.
State troopers and local cops, who arrested a Somali senior here
during another clash Wednesday, swarmed the front of the school and
eventually stood guard behind the front door. Administrators restricted
most students inside from leaving; teens gawked at the commotion through
the windows.
It was the latest example of racial frustrations erupting at the St.
Cloud school district, which is mostly white but home to a growing East
African population. Complaints about Somalis being harassed at Apollo
High School, another institution in the district, prompted an agreement
with the U.S. Department of Education in late 2011 that called for
regular reporting of progress on improving the environment for Somalis.
Raha Omar, an 18 year-old senior, said Somali students have a right to feel safe at school.
“Every single day something happens,” said Omar, as protesters,
including one student in tears, fanned across the lawn and some
negotiated with a cop at the entrance. “Somali kids being treated like
crap .. . We go to [administrators] and nothing happens.”
Superintendent Willie Jett was vague when asked about what the
administration had done in past years to address racial problems, saying
the staff is focused on this week’s events and would be having broader
conversations with parents and students.
“Our response has to be geared toward how to make kids feel safe,” he said.
On Wednesday, tensions boiled over after Somali students learned of a
white classmate posting a picture on the social networking site
Snapchat of a Somali freshman with a caption linking her to ISIS, the
Islamic terrorist group. Someone took a screenshot of the picture and it
rapidly circulated.
Jett said staff was talking to the perpetrator’s parents and considering suspension or other options.
But more than 100 Somali teens, upset that the bully didn’t seem to
face any consequences, staged a walkout from the cafeteria that day and
protested on the lawn, as the administration put the school in
containment, meaning that students’ movement inside was restricted.
Administrators came outside to try to defuse the situation. “All 1,425
students in this school are very, very important to us,” said Principal
Adam Holm, according to video footage.
“ How many times have each and every one of us felt victimized at the
school?” junior Hafsa Abdi told him, with a large crowd gathered round.
“We do not feel safe at this school. We have come to report and report
and report, and have not seen anything.”
Abdi and seven other Somali students told the Star Tribune of a
pervasive climate of bullying toward girls who wore hijabs at the
school. They said students spat on them from the top of the stairwell at
the place they used to pray, told them to go back to their country,
jumped on their cafeteria tables and stepped on their food, and knocked
coffee cups out of their hands.
On Friday, some of the protesters demanded that charges be dropped
against 19 year-old senior Redwan Shire, who said that he tried walking
out of the building on Wednesday to take his sister away from the
protest, fearing the situation was too volatile. He said a security
guard tried to restrain him, he pushed back, and wound up in jail for
eight hours for disorderly conduct. Shire was also suspended for five
days.
Tech High School staff met with Somali students this morning to try
to smooth over tensions, but talks fell apart, according to interviews.
The school had no authority to have the charges dropped, according to
Jett, who couldn’t say why the police were called to Tech High School on
Friday. Some Somali students said there was a minor dispute between one
of their own and a non-Somali classmate trying to film them on her
phone as they gathered after the failed talks; they said police showed
up and they were ordered out.
St. Cloud Police Lt. Jeff Oxton said the department would defer to
the school on exactly what happened, but that officers responded to a
disturbance inside. They quickly determined that the matter was under
control and stood guard as a precautionary measure for a brief period.
This is happening because these kids dress different then the local black kids. They stop wearing the hijabs, and stop their mid day prayer and the problem goes away. Our Grand parents faced the same pressure when they came from the old country. If you fit in no issues.
Another sign of decline, Stay Vigilant my friends.
1 comment:
As long as they keep promising these foreigners the full backing of the government they will continue to cause issues. The government of course never learns.
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