The Weight of Blood (17)
She shoved the phone in Kenny’s face, Wendy jumping up to look over his shoulder. Five seconds in, she gasped in horror.
Kenny peered down at a shaky video of a familiar classroom. The camera shifted, the frame filling with nothing but hair and voices . . . Mrs. Morgan going over the day’s lesson, then hysterical laughter. He didn’t understand the big deal until he saw the first pencil fly, landing in Maddy Washington’s hair.
“Where did you find this?” Wendy asked in a shrieking plea.
Kali sucked her teeth. “Everywhere!”
FOX 5 GEORGIA
School under Fire after Video Showing Students Throwing Pencils in Black Girl’s Hair
Cell phone footage depicts a white student throwing pencils into a Black girl’s hair as other classmates laugh. It happened in the Springville School District this past Thursday. The video was first posted on Twitter, then on Facebook. Since then, there have been more than a million views. Parents were sent a note to reassure them that the incident was under investigation but weren’t given any more details on the matter.
FOX 5 reached out to district administrators, who declined to comment but sent a statement: “The privacy of students is of the utmost importance. We will not discuss those involved or how the school will handle the situation.”
But parents in neighboring communities believe that no disciplinary actions will take place and that the issue will be swept under the rug. One parent, Rhonda Richburg, had some choice words.
“In a town that still holds segregated proms, I’m not surprised one bit they bullied that girl.”
Four
MADDY DID IT
EPISODE 2, CONT.
Tanya: So explain this whole prom situation to me. Because I just can’t fathom it.
Michael: Okay, so it’s like this. Up until that year, seniors at Springville High hosted segregated proms, known as the “white prom” and the “Black prom.” The Black prom was really for all POC and LGBTQIA+ students.
Tanya: I thought segregation in America ended in the sixties.
Michael: Technically, yes.
Tanya: Then how was this even legal?
Michael: Well, since their prom wasn’t a school-sanctioned event, and was held privately off campus within the respective communities, it technically didn’t fall under federal or state purview.
Tanya: Ahhhh, Americans and their loopholes.
Michael: Springville High hadn’t hosted a prom since 1964, one year before the school integrated. Over the years, parents and students chose to uphold the tradition. The white prom was held at the Springville Country Club, which used to be an old train station made of all this French marble and stained-glass windows. The Black prom was held at the Barn, a renovated old farmhouse typically used for community plays or church concerts. And you’re never going to believe this. The proms were within walking distance of one another, about the length of a football field. There were times when some of the white students, after they were done with their prom, would sneak over to the Black prom because they quote “had the better music.”
Tanya: Could Black kids go to the white prom?
Michael: Of course not. They wouldn’t even be allowed through the gates.
Tanya: And they weren’t the least bit . . . mortified that people would see them doing something so blatantly racist in the twenty-first century?
Michael: They were a small southern town. Until that video surfaced and put a spotlight on their school, no one would’ve known. Sad part is, they weren’t the only town hosting segregated proms, and the tradition still goes on to this very day.
May 7, 2014
FIFTH PERIOD. Lunch.
Wendy took several sips of ginger ale to ease her stomach. Nerves, she told herself. Just nerves. But it felt more like guilt as the day went on. She chipped at the skin of an orange, the only food she found appealing as gossip swarmed around her.
The video was all over the news and all anyone could talk about. It didn’t show faces, not even Maddy’s, but everyone knew who’d thrown the pencils just from the audio alone. The sound of her and her friends heckling and humiliating a sobbing girl made Wendy feel like a monster. Strange that the video seemed to cut right before the earthquake hit.
Wendy glanced around the cafeteria of Springville High, catching eyes flicking to their table, where she and her heckling friends ate, the mood somber.
Were we really that bad? she thought, eyes on her orange.
Kenny rubbed her back. “You okay?”
She plastered on a fake smile. “Yeah.”
He nodded, unconvinced. “Wanna watch a movie later?”
She slouched. “Ugh. Can’t. Got prom committee tonight. Less than a month to go, and we still haven’t decided on the menu.”
He stilled. “Oh. Uh, okay. I . . . um, forgot something in my locker. Meet after school?”
Wendy nodded and watched him try to smoothly run out of the caf with a sigh.
Wendy and Kenny tried not to talk about prom. It meant discussing their differences, and they’d long ago perfected avoiding such heavy topics. They’d decided since they couldn’t go to each other’s proms that they wouldn’t go at all. Instead, they would dress up, eat a fancy dinner, and meet their friends at the after-prom party in Greenville. But Wendy had still volunteered for prom committee. She liked the planning, organizing, and decorating. She was good at it. It made her the ideal class president, cheer cocaptain, as well as homecoming committee chair. And she always volunteered to throw Jules the best surprise birthday parties.