The Platteville Public High School (PHS) will hold an assembly on Friday, Dec. 4 to discuss the race-based incidents that occurred over social media in early November. The high school asked the University of Wisconsin-Platteville to help coordinate and structure the conference.

PHS principle Tim Engh said that the school’s student services director contacted UW-Platteville’s Assistant Professor of Ethnic Studies Dr. Frank King to help turn what happened at the high school into a positive situation.

“A student Instagram’d a picture of two African-American students and put a racially charged message underneath it and it sent off to the whole school,” Engh said. “That got back to those young men and they were upset and kids took to social media and said lots of vulgar things.”

The assembly is at 8:30 a.m. with a presentation given by King that will cover language, context and the meaning behind emotionally-charged terms such as “the N-word.”

Valerie Wetzel, UW-Platteville Pioneer Student Center assistant director, said that following King’s presentation the student body will split up into “pride groups” that will be facilitated by various residence directors, residence assistants and Stop-the-Hate members. The students will answer various questions and develop ten ways to fight hate at PHS.

Students will then either go to lunch or attend another presentation given by Professor of Political Science and Director of Ethnic Studies Rosalyn Broussard. Engh said that the discussion will focus on the misconceptions about symbols.

“[Broussard] is going to talk about the confederate flag and talk about the significance of it, the origins of it, how it relates to the racial dynamic in the south and also throughout the country,” King said.

King said a few members of the PHS staff came to the university and originally asked Broussard, Edina Haslauer and himself for assistance. He said they met and planned out a way to formulate discussions on how to make PHS a more stable learning environment.

“[The incidents were] creating a disruption in our building because kids weren’t focused on what was going on and our African-American students felt violated,” Engh said. “It really comes down to respect, no matter where you’re from or what your color is or what your economic status is and we have to instill that in our students.”

King applauds PHS for their efforts in trying to stimulate and educate their student body about what is appropriate and how to manage free speech as well as respect among all.

Earlier in November, 372 students took a survey based on race relations and safety issues, to help determine the best avenue in addressing the issues.

King said this assembly will be a huge step towards fostering respect and education on a topic that people often are not comfortable talking about, but may not be the end of UW-Platteville’s assistance with the subject. He said that the topic needs to be nationally addressed in a preventative manner rather than a reactive matter.

PHS still has several days throughout the year where they will continue to talk about the topic of hate and respect related to physical abilities, economic status, gender and other issues.

“Things are feeling pretty good here at PHS right now so I think we’re definitely well down the path of healing from what happened and we’re definitely moving in a positive direction,” Engh said.

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