San Francisco students suspended over race-themed party
SAN FRANCISCO -- Fourteen students from a mostly white Catholic high school in San Francisco have been suspended for attending an outdoor weekend party where young people wore clothes meant to mimic a style associated with urban black culture, the school's president said Thursday.
The Rev. Edwin Harris, president of St. Ignatius College Preparatory High School, told parents in a letter that the gathering held Saturday at a large city park called Sigmund Stern Grove "appropriated pervasive negative stereotypes" and carried "racial overtones and racist implications."
"Regardless of the intent of those who participated, their actions had an adverse effect on the community and on them," Harris said. "We categorically condemn this gathering as it does not represent the Ignatian values or ideals that our school stands for."
The gathering was considered a "wigger party," a slang term combining white and the n-word, CBS affiliate KPIX reported. It refers to a white person who adopts mannerisms and clothing seen as racially stereotyping of African Americans.
People who attended told KPIX there were some 80 to 100 students from a number of schools at the party, including black students. Some students said the party was a regular event in which someone brings a keg, cups are sold and different themes are used.
The party was not organized by St. Ignatius students, Harris said. School administrators learned about it Tuesday from students who had seen photos on social media, he said.
"It's disheartening and incredibly sad this type of thing exists not just for SI, but for the entire city," St. Ignatius Principal Patrick Ruff told the San Francisco Chronicle.
A similar event during a Minnesota high school's homecoming week celebration in 2009 led a former student to file a federal civil rights lawsuit against the Red Wing School District. The school board settled the lawsuit for $90,000 in 2012.
The suspended St. Ignatius students will be required to meet with members of the school's Black Student Union, and administrators are planning a school-wide assembly to discuss diversity, Harris said.
In the 2014-2015 school year, African Americans comprised 3.6 percent of the St. Ignatius student body of 1,479 students, compared to 62 percent for Caucasian students, KPIX reported.