Rochester students victims of racist comments

Rochester Hills parent Khary Mason is asking for fellow parents to push the Rochester Community Schools district to address racial slurs he said his son endured on a Wednesday, November 1, field trip.

In a Facebook post the same day, Mason said he came home from work that day and his son, a student at West Middle School, told him he and two of his friends, who are all children of color, were on a field trip when another student used the n-word and told a racist joke.

"They were on a bus en-route to Rochester College for a field trip, when a kid in the back row says ..."Nigger" ... the words before it and the next couple of words after were, unintelligible. My son responds, 'NO don't say that,'" Mason wrote in the post. "The kid says something else that my son didn't understand, then the kid continued to recite a joke... ‘How do black people get exercise... They run from the cops.’"

Mason went on to say that this wasn't the first time that something like that incident occurred this year, adding that one of the other children had been called the n-word earlier this year.

"So I ask you, is this a problem with an individual... the culture of the school... or something greater?" he wrote. "My son went to the principal, and the band teacher to explain the problem... Stay tuned."

Mason asked his friends on Facebook to share the post with others if they agree that the issue is a problem. The post had been shared 35 times as of Friday morning November 3.

Rochester Community Schools spokesperson Lori Grein said the school administrator is to investigate any offensive situation as soon as they learn about it, and those responsible are to be held accountable for their actions.

"The actions described in the incident on Facebook are not representative of the values of our school community," she said.

West Middle School Principal Michael Dillon wasn't able to be reached for comment prior to this story being posted.

The story about the racial incident first appeared on Thursday evening in DeadlineDetroit.com, which said the Mason parents were planning on seeing school officials on Friday about the incident, as well as other similar incidents.