School responds to Tennessee student who used racial slur, wore white hood on video

The head of a Christian academy in Tennessee said he is taking disciplinary action against all students involved in a video that shows a student dressed in a white hood and using a racial slur.

“Immediately upon being made aware of an extremely inappropriate and deeply disappointing video yesterday afternoon that violates everything we value, the administration of Grace Christian Academy has taken swift action to meet with all students involved,” Tony Pointer, the head of Grace Christian Academy in Knoxville, Tennessee, wrote in a Facebook post on May 5.

“Severe disciplinary action has been issued as GCA does not condone this behavior or any form of racism. We will continue to seek truth and enact appropriate discipline.”

The video shows a person in a white hood, commonly associated with the Ku Klux Klan, sitting on a folding chair that has the word “Grace” written on the back. The person is also holding a wooden pole and a white bottle similar to a bottle of floor cleaner.

The person can be heard shouting, “Who do we hate?” and then using a racial slur. People can be heard shouting and laughing off-camera.

Pointer did not immediately respond to a request for comment from McClatchy News on Monday.

Tennessee state Rep. Gloria Johnson tweeted a link to a news story from WBIR about the incident on May 5 and called it “distressing.”

“The fact that they were so bold and not even a bit embarrassed about this is just shocking,” she wrote. “That they felt comfortable sharing it, means that they thought everyone else would think it was funny also. Who taught them this?”

Grace Christian Academy is a covenant school that serves students from pre-K through grade 12, according to its website.

This story was originally published May 9, 2022 at 2:06 PM with the headline "School responds to Tennessee student who used racial slur, wore white hood on video."