School community demands that cheerleaders in 'bigoted and hateful' video apologize: 'Racism is alive and well'
A school is disciplining a group of cheerleaders who chanted sexually explicit and racial lyrics in a social media video.
The deleted video was shared on Snapchat and Instagram after a Friday football game in San Antonio, Texas, and shows the cheerleaders from Calallen High School in Corpus Christi wearing their uniforms and remixing a song from the 2006 film Bring It On: All or Nothing.
According to KRIS-TV, the girls, who were not African-American, were singing the names “Shaniqua” and “Kanesha,” accompanied by hypersexual comments. Each girl got a turn in front of the camera and one sang, “I’m a virgin. I eat that (expletive) … ”
A three-page letter written by anonymous students and parents and signed “Calallen’s Conscience” was delivered to school officials, according to the Times Record News, and states that the students were “laughing, smiling and encouraging each other to be more raunchy than the last girl.”
“What is worse, the video shows the racist and bigotry, as all the ‘names’ they choose to refer to themselves as are historically associated with black American girls,” read the letter. “Have we not come (farther) than this? Apparently not in Calallen. Racism is alive and well…the cheerleaders should be forced to apologize for their racist, bigoted and hateful choice to insult black American girls.”
According to the Times Record News, the letter also claimed that cheerleaders were using marijuana last year and had recently vaped, which coaches allegedly allowed during games and in the locker room. However, school officials say the claims are not accurate.
Dr. Arturo Almendarez, superintendent of the Calallen Independent School District, tells Yahoo Lifestyle that the principal alerted him to the video on Monday and that he immediately met with the seven girls, in grades 10-12, who shot the video.
“The girls were mimicking a scene from the cheerleading film Bring It On, and they believed the names were from the movie,” Almendarez tells Yahoo Lifestyle. “But that’s no excuse for what they said — it’s pretty bad.”
According to Almendarez, there were a few adults present on the loud 54-seat bus, but they didn’t realize what was occurring in the back of the vehicle. “I know these girls and their parents, and they’re not racist,” he says. “They made a big mistake.”
One girl even sent the video to 60 people, and another believed that if she deleted it, no one would see it, says the superintendent. “They were very remorseful and said they weren’t trying to be ugly.”
Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:
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