Parents concerned racist video by West Middle School student

GREENWOOD VILLAGE, Colo. — The Rocky Mountain NAACP said parents are outraged about a racist video made by a student at West Middle School in Greenwood Village. 

Cherry Creek School District said in late September they found out about the video created outside of school and on that was shared in a group text. 

A spokesperson for the district said students involved faced “serious discipline” but they couldn’t share specifics due to privacy rights of the kids. 

“While this incident occurred off campus, we realized the potential impact this video would have on the student community. Administration and law enforcement acted immediately to investigate the situation,” said Lauren Snell, spokesperson for the district. 

The statement continued to say, “The Cherry Creek School District does not tolerate hate of any kind in our schools and realizes the trauma and pain these situations cause our students and their families. We take this seriously and offer support to impacted students and families.”

9NEWS will not share the video. Rocky Mountain NAACP said the video is filled with racist language and threats against Black people. 

Parents still don’t feel safe talking about this publicly and it’s why NAACP and the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday Commission talked on their behalf outside West Middle School Wednesday. 

They say some families feel the response from the district should have included a clearer message district-wide.

“With this kind of rhetoric there should have been district-wide email that went out to the parents letting them know that this threat or rhetoric existed and then how they handled it,” said Dr. Vern L. Howard, chairman of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Colorado Holiday Commission.

The press conference wasn’t meant to blame one person, they said. The focus was about the importance of making kids feel safe and driving hate out. 

“From my perspective it came to me from other mothers that – do these parents have guns in the home? It is not that they want to say anything negative about the kid, negative about the parents, but it is a public safety issue now right,” said Portia Prescott, Rocky Mountain NAACP president.

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