Angela and her husband Mike weren’t ready when their daughter showed them a disturbing social media post Thursday night.
They say the post shows their daughter’s Aliso Niguel High School classmate holding a racist prom invite, saying, “If you went to prom with me, it would take my breath away” next to a photo of George Floyd.
“It had a Black Lives fist up on it and a picture of George Floyd and at that point and I was like, ‘Are you serious? They’re making this a joke?'” said Mike, whose daughter attends Aliso Niguel High School.
Their daughter is biracial and also going to Aliso Niguel’s prom this weekend, and they don’t want the boy involved to be there.
“We really just don’t want this kid around our daughter, plain and simple,” said Mike.
Prom is a event, said Angela.
“They’ve already been robbed of two years of high school through COVID, and so the excitement they had — literally the day before — for prom versus the excitement they had last night, or the defeat they had last night, was heartbreaking,” she said.
Angela and Mike say they notified Aliso Niguel leadership, as well as some members of the school board and the Capistrano Unified School District.
“The sign is disgusting, lacks cultural sensitivity, is deeply offensive, and does not reflect the values we strive for in our school district,” the district said in a statement. “We serve a diverse community and we value all of our students and families.
“This is heartbreaking and in instances such as this, we work with school leadership to address the situation.”
Angela and Mike say they’ll respect whatever decision the district and school come up with.
But they also say their daughter has experienced racism on campus before, and want some sort of justice to be served in this case.
“We all make dumb decisions in high school and college, but at the same time he does need to be taught a lesson,” said Mike.
Added Angela: “It angers me. I was trying to explain to my daughter, there are certain hills you have to be willing to die on, and her respect and dignity is one of them.”
