South High School junior Jayla Lewis is a victim of a video circulating of seven giggling teenage girls saying racial epithets to the young teen five years ago. Well, that same video resurfaced, causing Lewis to relive a hateful moment again.
“It really hurt me first seeing that it was an African American leading them on to say it, which makes everybody think that it’s OK,” Lewis said, CBS reports.
The clip has resurfaced on social media and is going viral among students at South High School in Torrance, California. Lewis relives the display of racism she initially faced in middle school after the video was taken.
A Black classmate of Lewis’ received the viral clip attached with a text message.
“Kill yourself. We don’t want you. You don’t fit in with the rest of us,” the message read. “Go back to Africa.”
During the time of the initial incident, Lewis said the boys weren’t reprimanded, nor were the girls in the video taunting her. Lewis revealed that those same students are now seniors at South High with important roles in the student body and on the school’s athletic teams.
“I experienced two boys telling me to go back to Africa and pick cotton with my ancestors,” Lewis said.
According to CBS, many Black students do not feel comfortable returning to high school, with fewer than 3% of the students identifying as Black.
“There’s barely any African American staff,” Lewis said. “It’s not really anybody I can go to for personal, cultural problems.”
In a statement, the Torrance Unified School District said they dealt with the incident, including the students and their families.
“I can assure our school community that if ever students have conflicts with one another while at school or at a school event, we will work with them and their families to offer the support and supervision necessary to help them address their conflict respectfully and productively,” the district wrote.
Lewis’ mother, Linda Morris, said the district should investigate further to find the root of all this hate in the Torrance school system.
“My message to the district is to try to find out why these children don’t like African Americans,” she said. “We couldn’t choose our color. What is this that we have done, especially the students who are going there for academics and trying to get a good education — why do they feel like we don’t deserve it but they do?”
“I’m hoping for an apology, and I’m hoping for the girls to finally realize that what they’ve done wasn’t right,” she added.
In a statement, the district encouraged parents and students to report similar incidents to school officials.
