Marion Public Schools React to Students’ Racist Dance Proposal Poster

A racist dance proposal poster is making its way around social media after a Marion High School student asked a girl to the dance.

The poster reads “If I was Black, I’d be picking cotton, but I’m white so I’m picking you to go to Snowcoming with me”.

Two high school students are being investigated in relation to creating this poster.

“Honestly, my first thought was absolute shock and disgust,” said Marion Public Schools Superintendent Steve Brimmer. “I just couldn’t believe what I was seeing.”

Brimmer said they became aware of the photo before school closed on Friday.

“High school administration became aware of the Snapchat photo about 2:30 on Friday afternoon,” he said. “They were actually in a meeting when they found out about it, and they left the meeting and began to investigate the sign at that time.”

One of the students shown in the picture is on Marion’s basketball team, and that Friday, the team was playing against Baldwin.

Brimmer said that student ended up playing in the game that night, even though there was a pending investigation against them.

“I do know our athletic director reached out to Baldwin’s athletic director and explained the situation at that time,” he said. “We’ve heard different rumors about who was doing what, and it’s difficult to talk about student discipline due to the age of the students.”

Brimmer said they thought about pulling the student from the game, but the investigation had not been completed yet.

“At that point, nothing had been completed, so we were looking for some more finality and some more details on the investigation,” said Brimmer. “Once that’s complete, then the discipline will be handed out.”

Brimmer says he can’t talk specifics regarding discipline, but the situation is being dealt with.

“I understand people’s frustrations, I truly do, and we will deal with the situation,” he said.

Brimmer said they’re looking into getting sensitivity training for staff and students.

We reached out to Baldwin Community Schools for a comment. Our calls and emails were not returned.