fbpx
Politics Foreign Affairs Culture Fellows Program

High School Halftime Outrage

Black MS high school band stages 'gun' drama where black man allegedly just killed two white cops
Screen Shot 2018-10-06 at 4.28.28 PM

This is outrageous. Beyond outrageous:

Photos from a Mississippi high school band’s halftime performance are going viral, with thousands of people outraged over the content.

The performance by Forest Hill High School depicted students dressed as doctors and nurses holding other students dressed as SWAT team members at gunpoint with replica guns.

The halftime performance took place during a game at Brookhaven High School. Forest Hill High School is located in the heart of Jackson, and Brookhaven High School is about 1 hour south of that.

According to WLBT, just last week, two Brookhaven police officers were killed in the line of duty when they were responding to a call.

The officers were identified as 31-year-old Zach Moak and 35-year-old James White. Suspect Marquis Aaron, 25, is in police custody.

The dead officers were white. The alleged shooter is black.

More:

Jackson Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Errick L. Greene released a statement on Saturday.

“On behalf of the Jackson Public School (JPS) District, I want to offer my deep and sincere apologies for the performance by the Forest Hill High School band during Friday’s football half-time show in Brookhaven. Based loosely on the movie, “John Q,” the band’s performance depicted a hostage scene that included toy guns.

JPS has a great deal of respect and appreciation for our law enforcement partners. The band’s performance does not depict the values and people in our community, and was incredibly insensitive to the students, families, law enforcement officials and the entire Brookhaven community. For this we sincerely apologize to all, and we pledge to do better in the future.

We have taken some initial actions in response to this matter, and you have my commitment that we will investigate it fully and take additional appropriate action with respect to procedures and personnel.”

If they don’t fire that band director, they’re out of their minds.

Many people are saying on Facebook that if those kids had brought those toy guns to school, they would have been expelled. Yet they brought them onto the field for a halftime show that featured a pantomime of executing a police officer holding a police officer at gunpoint?

What is wrong with those hate-filled kids? What is wrong with the hate-filled adults who taught them to do that?

What will the consequences be for this act? Because there had better be some.

UPDATE: Reader Ryan Booth points out that this scene does not depict the execution of a police officer, but rather holding him at gunpoint. Though doing that in a halftime show, with fake guns, is outrageous all the same, that is a meaningful difference. I apologize for having described it otherwise, and have corrected my comment above.

Advertisement

Comments

Want to join the conversation?

Subscribe for as little as $5/mo to start commenting on Rod’s blog.

Join Now