Wellesley School Officials Respond to Hate Speech Allegations

Screenshots reportedly contain racial epithets and references to lynching.

Photo via Wikimedia Commons

Photo via Wikimedia Commons

Police and school officials in Wellesley have responded to alleged hate speech from high school students on Facebook.

One student posted screenshots of a private Facebook chat involving other Wellesley High School students, in which several allegedly used racial epithets and made references to genocide and lynching, the Wellesley Townsman reports.

The student, reportedly called autistic in a meme shared in the private chat, deleted the screenshots, but not before another shared them with the Townsman.

“These HIGHSCHOOLERS [sic] need to be held accountable for their action no matter the place, platform, and time,” the student wrote in his post. “I will whole heartedly say sorry to the kids for posting their profiles, but I’m not sorry for what I’m gonna [sic] do to make sure they get punished. I won’t stop until they are punished fairly.”

In an email to the WHS community, Superintendent David Lussier said the district had learned of “disturbing allegations of racial/ethnic harassment as well as hate speech,” and vowed to take action.

“At a time when issues of race and division are challenging the nation, we should not assume that we are immune to these same challenges in Wellesley,” Lussier wrote. “To this end, perhaps there has never been a more important time to underscore our ongoing belief that our strength lies within the diversity of our community.”

Two percent of Wellesley’s nearly 29,000 residents are black, according to Census data, while Wellesley High School is roughly 5.6-percent black.