October 31, 2017 - 7:30 AM
CHARLESTON, S.C. - A South Carolina college is investigating social media posts that appear to show students in "racially insensitive" Halloween costumes, the school's president said.
College of Charleston President Glenn McConnell said in a statement that the school's Division of Student Affairs and Department of Public Safety are probing whether students violated the code of conduct or other college rules.
The school's Black Student Union said one post showed a racial slur written on someone's bare skin, while another showed a student wearing an orange jumpsuit with the name "Freddie Gray," whose death in Baltimore police custody sparked a riot amid complaints about police brutality against black suspects. The caption said "ur going to jail tonight."
That student was a recent graduate of Boys Latin School of Maryland, where the image prompted officials to warn that there's no place for racism in their community.
Other elite private high schools in Baltimore also said their students have been involved in racially offensive Halloween costumes posted on social media.
The Baltimore Sun report ed that the Gilman School and Roland Park Country School identified their students in a photo that shows the teens in orange jumpsuits with a racial slur in the caption. A third school, Mount Saint Joseph High School, said the photo was taken and captioned by one of its students.
Gilman and Roland Park administrators said in a statement that the people who took the pictures, wrote captions on them and shared them online are not the students in the photos. Gilman Headmaster Henry Smyth wrote in a letter to school families that the incident disappointed him.
News from © The Associated Press, 2017