BROWNSVILLE, Tenn.—Haywood County Superintendent of Education Joey Hassell has ordered an “in-depth” investigation in the wake of social media posts by highs school students that threatened racial violence, and this morning he announced changes to Haywood High’s leadership.
Early today Hassell told Brownsville Radio that he has suspended Haywood High School Principal Dr. Jerry Pyron pending the outcome of the district office’s investigation. Hassell said “Yvette Blue and Chris Davis from our senior leadership team have been assigned HHS building responsibilities until we can complete an in-depth, thorough review.”
The posts were allegedly written by Haywood High School students. The conversation between the teenagers, published on the on-line service Snap Chat, went viral Sunday after Facebook users posted a screen shot of the texts.
Yesterday, dozens of students and several adults held a day-long demonstration demanding action be taken against the teens and school administrators. Wearing all black, the students first gathered in the school’s cafeteria but later moved outside where media had gathered.
In a statement issued Sunday night, Hassell said the superintendent’s office learned about the posts Sunday morning when they were first published on Facebook, but protesters said high school administrators had known about them for “two weeks” and had meted out discipline that included writing a ten-page paper. They complained that children have been “kicked out of school” for less.
In a statement Hassell issued Monday night he said, “The scope of the investigation will concern those who made the posts and those who were aware of the posts and failed to report pursuant to the Haywood County Board of Education policies and procedures.” Hassell says his investigation is expected to “take place over the remainder of the week.”
Schools were in session Monday, but as the news spread about the incident and protests, many parents took their children out of school. They arrived at Haywood High where there was a heavy police presence. Officers positioned at the drive-way entries attempted to allow only parents onto the school grounds.
Hassell says schools will be in regular session today and additional security is expected. Yesterday’s gatherings were peaceful — there were no confrontations.
The protests are not likely to go away soon. Yesterday those most vocal said they want at least two things. They want the kids involved in the texts punished, and they want high school administrators fired.
District Attorney Garry Brown told Brownsville police investigators that since there were no specific targets named in the posts, no criminal charges may be filed. The school system’s administrators say, constrained by privacy laws, they are not allowed to disclose punishment handed out to students.
How did it start? How did it go public?
While it is unclear exactly what led teenagers to write the offensive messages stirring this week’s community angst, one thing is clear, today’s modern channels of communication—social media—can easily trap those that misstep.
The controversial conversation was published on Snap-Chat. The service’s user attraction over text messaging and traditional social media is that the posts disappear within seconds of being read by the recipient. In theory, they leave no trail. Months ago, Snap Chat was hacked and many messages thought to have been expunged went viral. In the case of this week’s incident in Brownsville, someone who was on the list of Snap Chat recipients quickly, before it disappeared, took a picture of the message, preserving it.
It is also unclear exactly when the messages were originally circulated.
Yesterday’s protests were easy to follow, too, many Facebook subscribers broadcast them live.
