Students at Upstate private school hope banner will offset racist photo

Seniors at Christ Church Episcopal School want their fellow students – and the community – to know that a racist photo shared by a student on social media this week doesn’t represent their school.

So they stayed up late Wednesday and created another image, this time on a giant banner, and hung it above the front entrance to the Upper School.

When students and parents arrived at school Thursday, they saw these words painted on the banner in Cavalier blue and black: “We are Family Cavalier Strong.” In the bottom right corner, the banner reads “With love, Class of 2015.”

“Our school, as a community, is going through a difficult time right now,” said Valerie Pruc, Christ Central student body president. “We need to remind everyone in our community and outside of our community that we are united and that we really respect diversity and everyone within our school.”

Seniors took a photo Thursday morning that they hope will become the lasting image of a tough week at the private Greenville school. It shows three female students of different races standing hand-in-hand looking at the banner they had just hung above the school entrance.

“That symbolizes that we’re all united as one,” Pruc said. “Being a Cavalier brings us all together. It doesn’t matter what race, what age, what background you come from. I think that being at Christ Church is a very special thing that we all share, a common bond.”

Wednesday, the school expelled the sophomore who drew nooses and a swastika on a photo of four black, male Christ Church students and shared the photo on Snapchat, a social media messaging app, and through text messages.

“The principal reasons for dismissing the student were to uphold the principles of decency and respect, and secondarily to respond to behavior that tarnishes the school’s reputation,” said Leonard Kupersmith, Christ Church headmaster.

In an email to the school community, Kupersmith called the altered photo a “vile” and “repugnant act” that was contradictory to what the school stands for. Christ Church “respects racial, religious, and ethnic diversity,” he wrote. “We are a close-knit, faith-based and caring community.”

School leaders will spend the summer crafting a plan for the next school year to promote education about all types of diversity, Kupersmith said.

“It’s a fallacy to assume that adolescents have a broad cultural awareness,” he said.

Kupersmith said he doesn’t believe the now-expelled student understood the momentous impact of the imagery in the photo, “but any reasonable person would react to the symbolism of the photograph.”

Sarah Robinson, a senior student ambassador, who is black, said she’s never felt that her race has separated her from others at the school.

“It was upsetting and disgusting that somebody would make that type of photo, but that doesn’t change anything about Christ Church,” Robinson said. “It’s a shame that this is changing people’s mentality toward Christ Church.”

The racist photo was a “poor reflection of an impulsive act,” said Maggie Hamberis, senior class president.

The seniors didn’t want it to define their school, she said.

“We stick together no matter what,” Hamberis said. “We are all Cavaliers.”

This story was originally published April 30, 2015 at 8:00 PM with the headline "Students at Upstate private school hope banner will offset racist photo."