Lamar HS students outraged over viral photo

HOUSTON — Some students at Lamar High School expressed outrage Tuesday over an image being widely circulated on social media.

“It’s offensive and it hurts,” said Jessica Forte.

“It’s not OK,” said Ogechi Anene. “It’s really painful and frustrating.”

The photo shows a young female student in blackface. The photo was taken last weekend during an off-campus costume party put on by a sorority with unofficial ties to the school.

Wahid Fady was at the party and said the photograph has been taken out of context.

“I just feel like it was greatly misinterpreted,” said Fady. “It was interpreted in a racist manor, which it wasn’t intended to be. And social media has a tendency to boost these things to make them go viral.”

Reagan Shadwick claims she was grounded and missed the party, but said girls were told what to dress up as and that her classmate was given the rapper Tupac Shakur. She said she did it for laughs and not to offend.

“And we wouldn’t even do that,” said Shadwick. “Like none of us our racist.”

But given the history of blackface, a form of expression widely deemed discriminatory to African Americans, some students think school officials should discipline the girl in the picture.

“Some action needs to be taken to let her know that what she did wasn’t right,” said Forte.

We reached out to the school district for comment but no one returned calls.

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