SANDY, Utah (ABC 4 News) - The Canyons School District launched an investigation Monday into an allegation of racism at Alta High School.
The incident happened last Thursday at a "Spirit Bowl" in the school gym. The junior class was supposed to wear white. One junior came in a white hood that covered his face. Witnesses said he also went around giving a stiff-armed salute mimicking how the Nazis saluted Adolf Hitler.
He did all of this right in front of fellow junior, Larz Cosby, who identifies himself as "mixed race." Cosby recalled, "So everyone is like, 'Oh Larz, look at him, What are you going to do? You know, they're looking at me like I'm going to do something. And I say, 'Really,' and I take his hood off. I grab it and throw it behind me. And I said, 'Come on dude."
He said his first instinct was to throw a punch. "Honestly, that's what I wanted to do. But I didn't, because I thought what would my dad do, what would he say."
"I've never seen this before. Never. I've been discriminated against because of my color. But no one has ever run around with a white hood on," Cosby said.
Other students applauded Cosby for taking away the white hood. Alta senior Brett Paulsen said, "If I was close to the kid, I think I would have done the same and I'd expect other people to do the same." Senior Chase Hudson said of the hood student and those who laughed at him, "I don't know what they were thinking. I guess they weren't thinking, just trying to be funny. But it's not something to laugh about."
White hoods are no laughing matter. Worn by members of the KKK, they have long been a symbol of oppression, violence and terror for minorities. The Nazi salute represents more of the same.
A blog Larz Cosby wrote about the incident has gotten hundreds of hits and a couple dozen of comments. (To read his blog, click here.)
One classmate wrote, "I do think that what the kids did was just a joke ... But I also see where you're comin' from..."
Another wrote, "I ain't white and I go to Alta, but you don't see me crying."
And still another commented, "They're a bunch of meatheads that think they can do anything, but they're not racists."
Racist or not, there's now an investigation. Jennifer Toomer-Cook, a spokeswoman for the Canyons School District said, "The allegations did cause us concern so did launch the immediate investigation and we're fact-finding right now to see what did happen."
Some students who talked with ABC 4 said they'd heard that the student who put on the white hood had been suspended. Toomer-Cook would not confirm any disciplinary action.
