Parents from Katy Independent School District are voicing concern after racist text messages were sent to a group of Seven Lakes Junior High School students this past Tuesday.
A group of girls were sitting at a lunch table when they claim every single black eighth grade student at the Texas school received a racist text message, according to WISTV. The text messages contained violent threats against the recipients as well as the n-word.
"It was like around 12 o'clock when everyone received a racist message," recalled eighth-grade student Kayla Lyons, who said some of the girls — herself included — started crying.
"It went from phone to phone to phone. When everybody got it they started looking up at each other. I looked up at Kayla. Kayla shows me her phone. I looked across the room and there was a table of black boys and they were looking at their phone," another student, Joy Smith, said.
"I could not believe that my child, who is 13, had experienced this level of hate and this level of racism," parent Mona Smith told ABC Houston.
Parents were upset, and are wondering how their children's phone numbers were obtained by whoever sent the messages. Some fear the culprit may be in possession of other sensitive information about their children.
"I was horrified, terrified," said parent Danecia Stewart.
School officials have confirmed the texts came from two unknown numbers. Law enforcement is currently investigating the matter.
"How do you have the phone numbers of a large group of people?" Stewart continued. "If you're capable of obtaining that information, who knows what else is compromised, and who knows what else you are capable of doing?"
"The school administration along with the Katy ISD Police Department immediately launched an investigation to determine the source behind these inappropriate and offensive text messages," Katy ISD said in a statement, according to Covering Katy. "As an added precaution, police presence has been increased and we will remain on high alert until the end of the school year."
