TWO high school students are in the hot seat after painting their faces black for a themed sporting event.
Despite backlash from some parents, the Utah high schoolers were also celebrated as the “most spirited” attendees of the blackout-themed football game.
On Friday night, two unnamed Pine View High School students attended a football game at their school’s campus.
The Pine View Panthers were playing against a local high school from Cedar City.
One parent, whose daughter attended the game, said students and attendees were encouraged to wear all black for the event.
However, two students took the theme more literally than their peers, painting their faces black to match their attire.
One of the students’ entire face was covered in paint, while the other had black all over his head, except for his mouth and chin area.
Several parents were quick to share their thoughts on social media.
One parent, Edward Wright, said the incident was “ridiculous,” and called out a teacher at the school for sharing a photo of the two unnamed boys online.
“Pine View High School you must do better,” he posted on Facebook.
“If my daughter is old enough to experience racism, your child is old enough to learn about it,” he added.
Many of Wright’s Facebook followers and friends agreed with his sentiments.
“What on earth are they even doing?? What was the point of this?? This is awful!” one commentator wrote.
“Wow that’s so disrespectful on so many levels, I’m so sorry and embarrassed for the simple fact that they thought this was funny!” another user shared.
“Absolutely horrible! That teacher needs to be fired and these kids need a huge lesson in life, culture, acceptance, and love!” a third viewer wrote.
Some parents, however, jumped in to defend the teens, saying they “meant no harm” by their actions.
Washington County School District's Complete Statement
“We work hard to create a space where all students can feel safe,” the statement began.
“We are disheartened that this took place and we apologize to our students and community for any offense that was felt because of this incident,” they continued.
“This should not have happened!
“While our staff go through hours of training to prevent bullying, [and] harassment, and create a safe environment for all students, we recognize that we must do more so every student feels safe and valued in our schools.
“We are creating school teams that will work with teachers and staff to help make strategic changes that will improve school level culture and climate.
“We are committed to an ongoing process of improvement.
“This is something that we have continuously done and we will continue to do to help our students feel safe.”
“This is a blackout game…. Like where everyone wears and paints themselves black, the school color, to show support….” one parent shared.
“My daughter is on that cheer team, and we will be blacked out at the next blackout game, I can’t wait to hear how we are racist for supporting our kids and our school….” they added.
“The theme for the night was ‘black out.’ It was two dumb kids who took it too far,” one person wrote.
“I don’t believe there was any racial intent. Some education needs to be done on this,” they added.
Another commentator shared that the students weren’t “making fun of anybody’s skin color,” but instead “going along with the theme for the night to cheer on their football team.”
Wright said he, his daughter, and one other Black student also spoke with the school’s Vice Principal, Rusty Taylor, on Monday, as reported by CBS affiliate KUTV.
The school’s principal was notably not at the meeting.
Wright says his daughter’s feelings were hurt by the event, but confirmed on Facebook that she is doing “good” and is “resilient.”
He says his main concern is that this situation is not an isolated incident.
Wright referenced a September 2023 exposé by The Salt Lake Tribune, where two Black sisters, Hayley and Millie Fletcher, revealed that they had dealt with “years” of racism in St. George-area schools.
“It’s nothing new, Just can’t be ignored,” he shared on Facebook.
“I didn’t know is not an excuse. Do something about it now or it will continue and get worse,” he added.
One commentator agreed, adding that it was also the school’s responsibility to prevent such an incident from happening in the first place.
“To me…this is a huge fail on the part of the staff and administrators at PVHS who were at the game that night,” one user shared.
“The fact that it was NOT stopped with either preemptive training, education, and guidelines for the students in how they celebrate….is troubling, to say the least,” they added.
The U.S. Sun reached out to Pine View High School for comment.
