NY school district apologizes for ‘racist’ snowman post
A person captured a screenshot of the snowman image before it was deleted.
NEW YORK - An upstate New York school district removed a Facebook photo of three students in front of a dirty snowman after a backlash.
The post praised the snowman for being "just as diverse as our students!"
The Coxsackie-Athens Central School District shared the image of the students on Tuesday, WRRV reported.
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Resident Robert Dunckle shared it on Facebook with the message: "Umm It’s The Caption For Me Smh!!"
That brought a flood of comments, with many Green County residents calling the image or caption racist.
After taking the photo down, the superintendent apologized in a written statement.
"The word 'diverse' was used to describe how every kid can make a snowman differently and this variety of creativity should be celebrated. When it was commented that this post could be interpreted about race the post was taken down," district superintendent Randy Squier wrote. "We want to apologize and reiterate it was never intended to be hurtful. We are sincerely sorry."
Squier said the district would use the incident as an opportunity to review its social media policies and procedures to provide a learning environment where "every person feels that they belong."