According to polls on race relations, in 2010 society seemed to be more accepting of others. However since then,  racial tensions have continued to be on the rise. Recently, in Wake County schools, several incidents have occurred that have questioned Wake County’s ability to control race-induced bullying. These events have occurred at high schools such as Apex Friendship and Wake Forest, and have even reached younger students in places such as Leesville Road Middle School.

 On April 28, a Snapchat video was posted of the Apex Friendship High School step team. This post was captioned, “Plantation owner watches his former slaves rejoice and celebrate their newfound freedom Circa 1864” and the video was put in black and white. The video was posted by a white student and was hurtful to the all African American step team. Although the student was disciplined by administration, the students feel that these incidents are not receiving enough attention. At Wake Forest High School, one student decided to take matters into his own hands. For two months, a white student had used racial slurs and derogatory comments with a black student, which finally took a toll on the black student. Earlier this month, this black student had enough and decided to pull his bully to the ground after he had said hurtful comments to him. Both students were disciplined for the forceful act.. However, on May 11, a letter from Wake County Public Schools to the boy’s family revealed that he had been bullied and the teacher did nothing to stop it. The teacher was then suspended without pay. Furthermore, three Raleigh middle schoolers were seen bashing other races in a video posted to social media. Not only did they chant “KKK,” they also said that America does not accept the n-word, Jews, Arabs, or Hispanics. It was said that the students received a mere three day suspension for their racist video which stirred some controversy between the parents of racially targeted students. One parent said that the school system needs to enforce a more severe punishment for the students. This parent even noted that the black student at Wake Forest High had received ten days suspension for standing up for himself while these middle schoolers who had made racist remarks had only received a three day suspension.

 The NAACP and other advocacy groups requested to meet with Superintendent Jim Merrill after the Apex Friendship High School incident. The civil rights group thought the meeting was necessary after having their phones constantly ringing after the two Wake County school racial disturbances. The NAACP’s president, Portia Rochelle, made some demands for the change in the Wake County School System in regards to racial discrimination. Some of these demands were to make a clear discipline plan system-wide, details on what training is being done to address racial bullying, and a re-evaluation of how the schools are using school resource officers. Rochelle’s last request was for the creation of a committee to develop new policies to prevent discrimination. The meeting concluded with Rochelle and Merrill agreeing to meet quarterly to discuss any important issues and what will be done to address them. Although these compromises might not seem immediate, it is a plan that, hopefully, in time will cause a change in the Wake County school system. Junior Jalyn Chapman said, “Racism is taught, and in most cases racism is practiced by adults and kids see it. So it’s up to parents, as well as teachers, to help kids understand that racism isn’t right.” As an African American student herself, Jalyn believes that making a change requires direct action rather than between the officials in the system.