At a time when racial tensions are already very high in America, an investigation into racist messages allegedly sent by a Minnesota high school sophomore to another student turned out to be a hoax.
The Daily Wire spoke with Avery Severson, a sophomore at White Bear Lake High School near St. Paul, Minnesota, who was accused by a black student at her school of sending hateful and racist messages through Instagram.
Screenshots from an alleged conversation between Precious Boahen, who accused Severson of racism, and an account called “GoWhiteBear,” show the anonymous account using racial slurs. It’s unclear who was ultimately behind the anonymous account.
GO WHITE BEAR: Leave my school n****r. I don’t like a n****r b*tch. Dog. DIE N****R.
PRECIOUS: Homeboy, [you] trying too hard.
GO WHITE BEAR: You’re racist! ALL LIVES MATTER NOT BLACKS. I’m talking to the principal to end your little black club, it’s racist to white people. Hope your dad rapes you.
PRECIOUS: Have fun being miserable [about] diversity.
GO WHITE BEAR: Say goodbye to your black club. IT’S RACIST.
PRECIOUS: Aww, too bad.
GO WHITE BEAR: You should get hanged. You’re a dirty African Girl. Nobody wants you here. Go to a black school, this is WHITE bear lake.
Severson said that over the past year she has been stonewalled by her school administration in an effort to create a Turning Point USA club. In contrast, Boahen was able to create a black student affinity group with relative ease. Boahen accused Severson of being jealous of her ability to successfully kickstart a club.
Boahen shared a separate screenshot of the messages with the caption, “I bet you a billion bucks this is Avery Severson or one of her friends all mad because they can’t have their Turning Point club at school.”
Severson denied the accusations and told The Daily Wire that she was in a driver’s education class on Wednesday, April 7, when the conversations were posted to social media. She said she would never make such abhorrent comments.
Two days later on April 9, the hoax catapulted to a whole new level, as local media reported that students at White Bear Lake High School staged a walkout at the school and teachers joined in as a show of solidarity against the racist messages.
The high school began an investigation in conjunction with the FBI and the local police department which concluded the messages were a “hoax.”
The school district’s superintendent stated in an email, “The initial investigations by the FBI, our local police department, and the school district uncovered that the social media posts were not what they appeared. The original messages were found to be a hoax sent under false pretense by an Instagram account that was created by a student. The individual who created the social media posts poses no threat to our students of color.”
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New Jersey Passes Bill that Requires "Social Justice" and Racism Education in Public Schools
New Jersey lawmakers would like public schools to be held more accountable when it comes to teaching black history. Last month, lawmakers passed a bill that, if signed by Gov. Phil Murphy, would make it a requirement for schools to learn about racism and social justice in order to graduate.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reports:
“Our children will learn about Black history and not just being a slave,” said Assemblywoman Angela McKnight (D., Hudson), one of the bill’s sponsors. “We will know the contributions that Black people continue to do.”
The new law will complement the state’s Amistad law, which requires public schools to incorporate African American history. Her bill will put the Amistad Commission under the state Department of Education, tighten regulations and oversight, and mandate professional development for teachers.
Students in high schools across the region have been pushing for changes this year after the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. They want schools to address systemic racism and implicit bias among staff and students.
New Jersey and Pennsylvania require history to be taught, but districts decide the content of their courses.
Cherry Hill East, a school system noted by the Inquirer as “predominantly white,” would be the first school in the state to mandate the course on African-American history in order to graduate. The course was proposed by the students after a Black Lives Matter protest in the spring.
Pleasantville first-grade teacher Tamar LaSure-Owens, who has been leading a charge to infuse Black history into everyday lessons, believes the latest legislation would help teachers better present historically accurate and culturally sensitive information about all races.
“We need training,’ said LaSure-Owens, who has helped develop a model Black history curriculum at the Leeds Avenue School. “We need a curriculum that we can put our hands on.”
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A Bill Pushing Left Leaning Politics Into the Classroom in Illinois Has Officially Passed
In an article we previously wrote concerning the Illinois State Board of Education passing a bill called “Culturally Responsive Teaching and Leading Standards has officially been upheld by the Illinois Joint Committee on Administrative Rules (JCAR).
Some of the new standards include teachers assessing “how their biases affect how they access tools to mitigate their own behavior (racism, sexism, homophobia, unearned privilege, Eurocentrism, etc.)”
Bettina L. Love is a prominent advocate of Critical Race Theory in education and she believes “White Teachers Need Anti-Racist Therapy.”
If teachers do not do so voluntarily the new standards would allow schools to force teachers into therapy for their whiteness , along with punishing them with a loss of license and certification if complaints are made about them not adopting “progressive” ideologies. Teaching about “systemic racism” will be required as well.
Some Republican lawmakers voiced their opposition to the standards earlier this month, saying they add unnecessary politics to the classroom.
Sen. Sue Rezin, R-Morris, said she asked ISBE to include more diverse perspectives on their task forces to avoid standards like this from being so controversial in the future, and said the board made some of the changes Republicans asked for.
Rezin said her office got an unusually high number of calls and emails about these standards.
These new teaching standards will take effect in October 2025.
Some lawmakers were not happy with the decision including Republican Candidate for Governor and Former Senator Paul Schimpf:
“I am extremely disappointed that JCAR approved the State Board of Education’s Culturally Responsive Teacher Standards. These standards politicize the teacher certification process and undermine the authority of local school boards, superintendents, and parents to control their children’s’ education. This is yet another example of top-down, administrative overreach by the Pritzker Administration and illustrates a clear example of why Illinois needs a new governor.”
