Mom fears for daughters after school photo is edited to show girls surrounded by KKK

Two high school students in Albuquerque, New Mexico, have been suspended and could face hate crime charges after posting a racially-charged photo on social media.

The photo shows two black students in a Volcano Vista High School classroom surrounded by classmates with doctored images of KKK hoods on their heads. The photo was then posted Tuesday on the school’s Snapchat group, KOB reported.

KOB spoke to the parents of one of the black students in the photo, who found the photo disturbing.

"It was awful," said Mary Morrow-Webb, the mother of a black girl in the picture. "It was frightening. I just really got sick to my stomach. I was afraid for my daughters and for the other children there that are at risk for these types of threats."

"You don't expect your kids going to school and having to deal with racism and discrimination in 2017," said Lamont Webb, father. "It's kind of appalling."

The parents said their children haven’t gone to the school since the photo was posted.

"And now they say they can't go back," Morrow-Webb said. "And we can't afford to send our daughters to private school, so what options do they have? They finally have broken my girls. So what do we do?"

The parents added that their daughters have also faced other acts of racism and bullying and have reported it to the school for three years. Nothing has been done, they told KOB.

"We've been coming in with complaints of my daughter saying someone called her the N-word," Webb said. "Someone called her a porch monkey and different things like that on a regular basis."

KOB obtained a letter written by Volcano Vista High School Principal Vickie Bannerman in which she said the two students who posted the image thought it was a “joke.”

“The students who doctored the picture and posted it to social media said it was supposed to be a joke. Of course, it was in no way funny. In fact, I found it repugnant and hateful. Please know that the students involved have been appropriately and expeditiously disciplined,” Bannerman wrote.

Bannerman told KQRE that students saw the image and reported it to her immediately. She told the TV station that she found the two students responsible, forced the image to be removed and suspended them each for 10 days.

The students are both juniors, and one was on the school’s football team, Albuquerque Public Schools Superintendent Raquel Reedy said to KQRE, adding that the football player was kicked off the team.

Bannerman also told KQRE the two suspended students apologized for the photo and didn’t think it would cause a negative reaction.

“They do not have, what I thought to be a malicious spirit, they just made a very very poor choice,” Bannerman said to KQRE.

Reedy said the photo was unacceptable and that police are looking into the incident.

"They came and investigated and are really looking very carefully at whether we should file charges for hate crimes. This is something we're looking at very carefully because it's this serious," Reedy told KOB.

Reedy said Bannerman wasn’t the principal at the time when other complaints of bullying were being made.

"The fact is that she is out to make sure that this doesn't happen again," Reedy said to KOB. "She is adamant that the school is going to be safe for every single student that attends, and I would encourage any parent who has any concerns to contact Ms. Bannerman because she will look into it and they would be heard."

This story was originally published August 31, 2017 at 4:36 PM with the headline "Mom fears for daughters after school photo is edited to show girls surrounded by KKK."