A student at Portland’s Roosevelt High School found a magnet with an illustration of a hooded Ku Klux Klan member with the text “The KKK Wants You!”
He spotted it in the boys bathroom around 9:30 this morning and immediately reported it to school administrators, who he said took it seriously.
“I was disgusted by it, knowing we have a majority Black and brown students and a big Catholic population here,” the student told the Mercury this afternoon about the KKK magnet. “It’s disgusting, even if someone meant it as a joke.”
The student described it as about three inches by three inches, and said it looked as if it had been placed there that morning.
Portland Public Schools spokesperson Dave Northfield said Roosevelt administrators are investigating video footage from the entrance of the restroom. Meanwhile, Roosevelt Pincipal Filip Hristic released the following statement:
This hateful image is appalling and offensive, and has no place at Roosevelt High School or at any other Portland Public School. We are actively investigating how this wound up in a boys’ bathroom at school this morning. We are committed to creating and maintaining a safe environment for every one of our students. This is particularly hurtful to our African American students, for whom this image is a symbol of hatred and violence
Whether the KKK magnet was placed there by a genuine Klan fan or not, racist imagery found around Portland is nothing new.
This ugly little white pride chapter has to end. They are freaking kids.
Misbehaving high schoolers. This is not meant to excuse them, but this should not even be a news story. Yes, it’s bad they did it, but really, there are other things to be upset about. Please use a little perspective when you decide to puchlish a news item.