Nevada high schoolers accused of dragging and stomping black mannequin at homecoming
Leaders at a Nevada high school are investigating a complaint that students dressed a black mannequin as a competing team’s mascot, then dragged it with a rope and stomped on it.
Kristen McNeill, the district’s interim superintendent, said she received a complaint around 9:30 p.m. Friday about the incident, which occurred at a Damonte High School homecoming football game parade as the team took on McQueen High School, the Reno Gazette Journal reported.
“The complaint said a student dressed as Damonte’s mustang mascot was dragging a black blow-up doll that was dressed like McQueen’s Lancer, or knight, mascot,” the Gazette Journal reported, adding that “students stomped on it as it circled the football track.”
Washoe County School District leaders said in a statement that the incident “runs contrary to everything we believe in and all we work to achieve as a school district community. This incident and the behavior of those responsible is utterly inconsistent with our collective commitment to equity, diversity, responsibility, and kindness for all of our students and staff members.”
A district spokeswoman said she couldn’t answer specific questions, but did say many fans and students found the incident “culturally, racially insensitive,” News 4-Fox 11 reported.
The TV station published footage that one of its photographers recorded, saying the short clip “shows a Damonte Ranch student dressed as a mustang (the school’s mascot) dragging a black and blue dummy on the ground during the halftime homecoming parade.”
Local leaders condemned the incident.
“It is troubling that children are so poorly educated that they did not immediately know that the hanging of a black doll is hurtful and frightening,” said Lonnie Feemster, president of the Reno-Sparks NAACP, according to the Gazette Journal.
According to the Anti-Defamation League, which describes itself as an “anti-hate organization,” the noose “has come to be one of the most powerful visual symbols directed against African-Americans, comparable in the emotions that it evokes to that of the swastika for Jews. Its origins are connected to the history of lynching in America, particularly in the South after the Civil War, when violence or threat of violence replaced slavery as one of the main forms of social control that whites used on African-Americans.”
An “investigation and fact-finding effort” were launched as soon as McNeill learned of the incident, according to the district.
The district said school leaders hope to uncover “how this most unfortunate incident occurred, and will take appropriate action to ensure it never happens again.”
“We will hold those responsible accountable for their actions,” school leaders said. “This may in fact entail— in addition to apologies— a school-wide redoubling of efforts around civil rights, equity, and diversity training.”
According to the Gazette Journal, an incident report said Damonte Ranch students had “tried to purchase a gray mannequin on Amazon but the only one available was black” — and that the student planned to put the mannequin on a float, but “couldn’t keep the mannequin standing on the float and that’s why it ended up being dragged behind the student dressed in the blow up cowboy/horse.”
This story was originally published September 23, 2019 at 5:22 PM with the headline "Nevada high schoolers accused of dragging and stomping black mannequin at homecoming."
