A teen from Sarasota, Florida is under scrutiny for the way he proposed to a his girlfriend. The online community went wild with outrage calling it racist and distasteful. This 18 year old made a sign that stated: "If I was black I'd be picking cotton, but I'm white so I'm picking you 4 prom?" Naturally this poor choice has been criticized on social media and around town, making the local paper. In addition it's now receiving national attention seeing as how we're up here in Boston, MA and this has come to our attention.
The kid's (well adult I suppose since he's 18 now but his actions speak otherwise) name is Noah Crowley who conducted the proposal. It came to social media's attention when his girlfriend snapped a picture of the proposal sign and that's when others saw it and preceeded to post it online and thus made it go viral.
Students at the Sarasota highshool, Riverview High, are disgusted by the proposal yet one senior, Anton Kernohan, said that he "thinks it's actually important that this issue occured" because it shows that racism is "still alive and well in our society and it's something that the youth will have to continue to fight against." The school's acting principal did issue a statement addressing this proposal saying that:
″[The post] was racial in nature and administration became aware of it last night,” said Riverview acting principal Kathy Wilks in a call to parents Monday morning. “Many who saw the post are understandably upset with its contents as well as the subsequent commentary to the post. Riverview High School absolutely does not condone or support the message conveyed in this post.”
She added: “We are focused on ensuring that Riverview High School provides a safe and secure environment for all of our students and that all students feel welcome and understand the value that they all bring to our school community. Our guidance counselors and administrators are available for any student who wish to speak to someone regarding the issue. Riverview High School has a wonderful student population and we know our school will use this incident as an opportunity to have productive conversations about respect for one another.”
As of right now the school district is still deciding on whether any disciplinary action will be taken against the student.
-Producer Lightning