'Slave Sale' Flyers Add Insult to Injury In Aledo

DALLAS —Something profound is happening in Aledo. First, the facts:

On March 25, one Aledo parent, Mioshi Johnson notified another, Tamara Lawrence, of a Snapchat group touting a "slave auction" of Black students at Daniel Ninth Grade Campus. Online bids for students ranged from $100 to a single dollar.

The responsible parties were discovered to be members of the school baseball team — a team on which Lawrence's son is the only Black member.

Subsequent meetings with the principal and Superintendent Susan Bohn resulted in a statement that addressed the incident in the most general terms, denouncing bigotry and saying such behavior was inexcusable.

Schoolboard meetings last Thursday and again Monday night allowed parents and students to air their upset, but so far, the school board has still not made clear what actions, if any, it will undertake.

Chris Johnson, 14, appeared alongside his parents to tell the ISD board how it feels to see your peers debate your worth as a slave. And he was not moved by the obviously uncomfortable position the board finds itself in now. He told them flatly, "If you think this has affected your job, imagine how we have been impacted."

Nor did he seem impressed with the news that the offending students were punished. "The only apology I am accepting," he said, "is changed behavior."

Bohn is sticking to her previous statements: "This behavior does not reflect the values of our school district or our community," she told the crowd assembled Monday.

But isn't it easier for prejudice to thrive when it's only condemned in the abstract? Shouldn't a public example be made of the offenders? Shouldn't the punishments be significant and transparent, and shouldn't there be an agreed-upon roadmap out of this quagmire?

To date, it's still unknown what discipline the offending students received, what the police did when they were called in, and whether the district ever intends to be more transparent about its activities regarding the matter.

And now, on the heels of the board's initial hesitance, flyers appeared strewn in front of the school on Monday morning announcing "A Great Sale of Slaves."

It's time to ask if those espousing racist beliefs been emboldened by the board's response. Or if they've been stirred to action by the board of trustees' timidity, obfuscation or the publicity that has taken this story from a once-quiet Dallas suburb to the forefront of media across the nation.