Students hold protest at Haywood HS after screenshots of racist messages surface on social media

HAYWOOD COUNTY, Tenn. — Students at Haywood High School in Brownsville held a protest Monday morning in the school’s cafeteria that later expanded outside the building.

“Because of your social media posts, because of what you’re saying now, your voices are being heard. Your mission has been accomplished,” Brownsville Mayor Bill Rawls told students.

The protests come after screenshots of messages from Snapchat were posted to social media. Kyler Douglas says he’s the one who originally posted the screenshots of the messages, which are said to have been written by students at the school.

“So I read through it and I saw my little brother’s name in it, and that really made me mad right there ’cause they’re talking about hanging somebody and my little brother’s name right there,” Douglas said.

Mayor Rawls assured students that something would be done.

“Now that information has been exposed, and it’s not swept under the rug. It’s out in the open now. There will be something done about it,” Rawls told the students.

Students then moved the protest outside of the school. They stopped at the end of the schoolyard, and parents of the students joined them.

“I feel like a strong parent presence should be here,” Charli Starks, a parent of a Haywood High School student, said. “So that’s why I came to help support the children.”

Parents along with the students held up handwritten signs to continue the protest outside the school.