An investigation has been launched after a North Carolina middle school student wrote a racial slur on a Black girl's arm, per WXII 12.
The incident unfolded during a yearbook signing party on May 31 at Southeastern Stokes Middle School.
Selena Ford-Scales said the principal informed her of the incident involving her 11-year-old daughter and another student.
“He was like, ‘The student wrote the N-word on your daughter,’ Ford-Scales said. “At that point, I was about to lose myself.”
A staff member took a picture of the girl's graffitied arm before instructing the 11-year-old to wash it off, Ford-Scales said.
“It was in big, bold, black letters on her skin,” Ford-Scales said. “I told myself, ‘Let me take a look at this picture. So when I saw it, my insides started boiling, and I started shaking.”
Administrators declined to give Ford-Scales the picture of her daughter's arm.
“I’m like, ‘So I can’t get the picture? I can’t get the statements.’ What can I get at this point?” Ford-Scales questioned. “Pretty much nothing.”
The mother filed a report with the Stokes County Sheriff’s Office.
In a statement, the district said the photo is "confidential," adding that it's “part of an ongoing investigation of student conduct.” District officials noted that the student who wrote the slur received “appropriate discipline per the district’s Code of Student Conduct.” However, the nature of the disciplinary action remains unclear.
Ford-Scales said the student returned to school days after the incident and hit her daughter.
“I asked her, ‘Did anybody do or say anything at all to you?'” Ford-Scales said. “She said, ‘Momma, the little girl hit me in my back.’ I started shaking. I said no.”
Stokes County NAACP is calling for further action concerning the incident.
“Once we investigate it, we’re going to send it to our state office,” Stokes County NAACP President Wesley Durrell said.
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