The principal and assistant principal of Haywood High School in Brownsville, Tennessee have been suspended without pay as officials investigate group chats where students wrote racial slurs and disturbing threats against one or more black people — including the phrase "stringing a nigger up."
The same current and former students told BuzzFeed News said they were told the students who sent the messages were asked to write a 10-page essay as punishment.
I'm here now and this is true. The punishment....a ten page paper. No expulsion, no suspension from the team. N… https://t.co/SJPUndgG76
The associate superintendent of the Haywood County school district, Art Garrett, did not confirm or deny this was the case to BuzzFeed News, but added that the alleged essay punishment "is all part of the investigation that is underway."
"Once the investigation is completed, appropriate action will be taken based on the findings and following school board policy," Garrett added.
On Monday, students, parents, and members of the community showed up to the school in protest. Some claimed that not enough has been done to penalize the students responsible and to protect those who were threatened.
"Something needs to happen," said Douglas, who participated in the sit-in protest at the school. "I don't know if anything will happen."
Freshman Angelina Ferrer, who skipped her classes Monday to participate in the protest, said she believed the alleged punishment the white students received was not sufficient enough.
"We will not stop until we get justice with the school system," she said.
The school's principal, Jerry Pyron, did not return a request for comment from BuzzFeed News.
In an official statement via its Facebook page, Hassell said the school district is "cooperating with the Brownsville Police Department to ensure that we have a safe, orderly learning environment for our students."
Hassell also stated that Brownsville police will not be filing any criminal charges against the students in the group chat.
BuzzFeed News attempted to contact the police department but were informed that there was no one in the office who could take any questions — “There’s no one in the office; they’re all at the high school protest,” a dispatcher said.
In the aftermath of Monday's protests, however, Hassell announced that the district had launched an in-depth investigation into the allegations regarding the messages.
The investigation will look into those who made the posts, as well as anyone who was aware of the posts and failed to report them, Hassell said in a statement. The investigation is underway, he said, and is expected to continue for the rest of the week.
On Tuesday, following a meeting with the Haywood County NAACP, Hassell said the district would "immediately remove all students involved on the baseball team and others, who are responsible for making these life-threatening comments/remarks, from the school system," pending the results of the investigation.