Students yell 'KKK' and 'white power' at teen dating black student
A high school student in the US claims fellow students have been yelling "KKK" and "white power" at her because she is in an inter-racial relationship.
Maddy Ridgeway dates a black student and said students at Cosby High School in Chesterfield, Virginia, have been bullying her in the halls despite voicing her concerns to school administrators in January.
The student's family said the abuse has not stopped, and told NBC-12 they have had enough and the parents of fellow students need to know what is happening.
"They would say 'KKK' to me, 'white power,'" Maddy told the news station.
But the teen said when she voiced her issue with the school, she was asked whether she told the bullying students to stop.
"I hadn't specifically said 'stop,' but I told them they couldn't do that, they knew it got on my nerves," Maddy recalled of the conversation with a school staff member.
"He basically said that he couldn't do anything because I didn't say stop."
According to the teen's recollection, the administrator told her the school could not intervene to tell the bullying students to cease their abuse unless Maddy herself had told them to cut it out first.
Maddy's friends stood up for her, but the abuse became too much and her mother pulled her out of the school.
After a few months of home schooling, Maddy returned to Cosby High a few weeks ago, but the bullying and abuse returned too.
The schoolgirl did not tell administrators about the recent abuse, but her family said they plan to pull her from school again and move to the state of Vermont in the summer.
In a statement, Cosby High School administrators said they would "continue to work closely with any student who has a concern" and asked students to report incidents of bullying immediately so they can be investigated to determine "any appropriate student disciplinary measures".
After news of the protracted racist bullying came to light, the school issued a letter to the school community to reinforce the need to respect their fellow students.
"At Cosby, we believe that all students regardless of their background or beliefs should be treated with respect," the letter said.
