Updated: Madison Southern promises ‘swift and just’ handling of social media incident
The Berea Police Department has charged four people with harassing communications after a social media incident that Madison Southern High School said it was looking into.
Madison Southern said it was working with the Berea Police Department to look into a “terrible and unacceptable” social media incident on Thursday morning, according to the school’s Facebook page.
“We have not and we will not turn a blind eye to any issue of discrimination that arises,” the post read.
The school did not disclose details of the incident, but police were actively investigating it Thursday, according to Capt. Kenneth Puckett of the Berea Police Department. The investigation was still ongoing after two adults and two juveniles were charged Thursday evening.
“The incident includes behavior that does not and will not be representative of our school or community,” the school said. “As a school and a district, it simply will NOT be tolerated.”
“Any incident such as this, will be handled in the most serious manner,” the school said in the post.
The school also said that it was aware of a previous incident and wanted “to assure our school community that the previous incident was also dealt with in a swift and just manner.”
The post came less than one day after a Madison Southern student alleged that other Madison Southern students repeatedly called her a racial slur on social media.
She said that the students who did it were seniors and claimed they couldn’t be reprimanded because they were about to graduate.
She said she had dealt with previous incidents involving racial slurs, and reported them to school employees.
The Berea Police Department said more information could be released after the investigation was finished.
This story was originally published May 7, 2020 at 3:49 PM.