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White Bear Lake HS students stage walkout over racist, threatening messages on social media

School district leaders and the White Bear Lake Police Department say they are working quickly to find out who's responsible.

WHITE BEAR LAKE, Minn. — Students at White Bear Lake High School's south campus staged a walkout after some of their classmates faced racist and threatening messages on social media.

"I feel infuriated when white people say the n-word in front of me. You guys don't understand how it feels. You don't," said one student.

A flood of emotions were on display as students poured out of school demanding change. 

"I have people telling me I look like a clown because my hair is red and I have an afro," another student spoke into a microphone to a large, listening crowd.

The walkout was sparked by the discovery of an anonymous Instagram page and chat room targeting students of color at the school - many of the posts so disturbing we can't describe them in detail.

Students were called the n-word, dog, and one person wrote they hope Black students die like George Floyd, who died under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer last summer.

KARE 11's Lorenzo Hall was on the scene to assess the various sentiments on display. 

He spoke with Brandi Tucker, a mother with Visual Black Justice, who helped students assemble the march. 

 "Looking at some of the comments that were left and directed toward these students, they're disgusting," said Lorenzo.

"It's disheartening. It's almost sickening. It almost makes you sick to your stomach that the hate is being brought from home to these other students because of the color of their skin," Tucker commented. 

Amid calls of "no justice, no peace," the march brought out people of all colors and backgrounds, even former students like James Grewe, who says he was too scared to speak up before. 

"I'm an Asian and Mexican-American. For people to say racist stuff toward us because of what we eat, how they perceive us is so wrong, too," Grewe said. 

While calling for accountability, the students also called out their principal, asking why more hasn't been done despite persistently reporting these problems. 

Don Bosch, the principal for White Bear Lake High School's south campus, says, "Obviously, we haven't done a good enough job because in your mind, it hasn't been good enough. So, we need to take a closer look at what we're doing." 

KARE 11 spoke with the superintendent for White Bear Lake area schools Dr. Kazmierczak, who echoed Bosch's sentiment stating, "We need to do better and we will do better. We're in the process of doing some good work, but, I don't think we're moving fast enough."

For the students, however, the first course of action is finding out who is behind those recent, racist Instagram posts. 

School district leaders and the White Bear Lake Police Department say they are working quickly to find out who's responsible.

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