Colonie Students Protest Racist Remarks Made in Group Chat

Multiple Colonie Central High School seniors who used a group chat to post videos of themselves saying the N-word at a party that followed their Oct. 10 homecoming set off a massive student protest outside the school Monday.

The videos were posted last Wednesday in a large private group chat that included more than 100 students. District officials who learned of the matter sent students depicted in the videos home from school the following day.

By Monday, more than 100 Colonie Central High School students were standing shoulder-to-shoulder in a parking lot across from the school, shouting messages about their intolerance for what they view as flagrant racism and bigotry. Even as they gathered, other students were still posting racially charged comments in other group chats, according to text messages shared with the Times Union by students at the protest.

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Black students said they often heard the slur in the school hallways, and alleged that at a recent football game some Colonie students were shouting it derogatorily. When they reported the incidents, they alleged a principal told them he would do nothing because he hadn’t heard it.

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But Black students said the videos merely exposed what they contend were long-simmering racial undercurrents at the school. Multiple Black students described being called the slur at school by white students who were trying to insult them. When they reported it, they said the administrators would focus on whether the word was said with a “hard R.”

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