Father criticizes lack of immediate action after blackface incident at school event

New details have emerged from a southern Utah high school where two students showed up to a “blackout” football game wearing black face paint.

Edward Wright, a black man whose daughter is a senior at Pine View High School, said the incident was “extremely disturbing.”

He said he did not condemn the students who voluntarily put on black makeup, but was rather concerned that an adult had not intervened sooner.

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“You could have tapped these young men on the shoulder, whispered something in their ear and made them understand the meaning of this,” Wright said.

He wasn't at the game, but his daughter was. A friend sent him the picture after it was posted on a school social media page.

“We all make mistakes, but in the age of social media and constant connectivity, it's just impossible for people not to know. I'm a firm believer that ignorance is no excuse,” Wright said.

He said the incident should have been resolved immediately.

“You do it as soon as the problem arises. You don't wait. I feel like this was a missed opportunity for education,” Wright said.

Wright said some of his 11 children have experienced direct racism in the Washington County school system.

“I have other children who attend schools here and they have been called the N-word. We have had to talk to the principals about problems at the school,” Wright said.

He said he had spoken to other community members with black children who had similar experiences.

Stacey Fletcher and her family, which includes two mixed-race daughters, recently moved to Salt Lake City from Washington County after years of experiencing racism.

She said that after her youngest daughter reported the racism and faced severe retaliation at school, she took the matter to the Washington County School District.

This led her to become heavily involved in developing programs to educate administration, teachers, staff and students about racism in the school.

“We wanted to take the burden off of black students in these schools and provide relief,” Fletcher said.

Since moving away from St. George, Fletcher has remained connected with the school district and said she received numerous calls and emails the weekend after the Pine View football game.

She said the comments on social media dismissing the incident were disheartening.

“This is the moment for us to step forward and confront it. What was harmful about it? How can I educate myself about black face? Don't ask a black person to educate you about black face. You can Google it if you don't understand. It's important to educate yourself,” Fletcher said.

Wright also said that while education is important, it must go further.

“It's not about consequences, it's about responsibility. In my opinion, for most people, responsibility is a consequence,” Wright said.

He also said that learning about race begins at home, even in school programs.

“We are parents and it is our responsibility to teach our children what we want to teach them, not the world,” Wright said. “You can't blame young children for coming to school and saying what they hear at home. Parents need to try harder, too.”

Steve Dunham of the Washington County School District said he regrets that the incident even occurred.

“This is where we as a district need to step in and say we didn't get the results we wanted. Someone should have intervened. We're convinced there were other faculty members present at the game and it would have been nice if someone had intervened,” Dunham said.

He said they are investigating why no teaching staff intervened in the game, why the photo was taken and why its posting on a social media account associated with the school was authorized.

He said they will do everything in their power to prevent this from happening in the future.

“When a case like this occurs, it immediately shows us where we are weak and where we can improve,” Dunham said. “We will step in and try to reinforce some things with all of our full-time teachers, all of our part-time teachers, all of our staff so that we feel like we have done our best.”

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