Illinois high school students plan walkout after black face photos posted on social media

Students at a high school in Illinois are reportedly planning a walkout Tuesday to protest fellow students who posted images of themselves in blackface on social media.

Four students at Homewood-Flossmoor High School in Illinois reportedly posted photos of themselves in blackface and recorded a video of themselves going through a fast food drive-thru wearing the dark makeup while talking negatively about African American girls, according to local news outlet ABC-7.

{mosads}Administrators from the school, which is nearly 70 percent black, confirmed the existence of the “highly offensive and culturally insensitive” social media posts and said they met Sunday with the families of the students who made the posts, The Chicago Tribune reported.

The videos and images of the white students in blackface, with one wearing a hoodie from the high school, were reportedly posted on Snapchat. The images were screenshotted and widely shared among the student body over the weekend.

The students were not publicly identified by the high school administrators due to confidentiality laws.

Homewood-Flossmoor senior Cotrell Moore told ABC-7 that students are participating in the walkout in an effort to call on administrators to punish the students involved in the racist incident.

“Hopefully, every student that participates actually is there for the true meaning that they should be, to get some type of punishment,” Moore said.

The school did not indicate how or if the students involved in the blackface incident would be punished.

“We have been made aware that some of our students may participate in a walkout sometime today to express their frustration with the social media posts and actions of a few students this past weekend,” the school wrote in a letter to parents about the planned walkout. “We support their right to express themselves, and we will work to ensure that all students are safe and respected.”

The letter added that access to the school’s campus would be closed during the walkout.