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In a now-deleted post on Tuesday, Jan. 31, Greene County’s Coxsackie-Athens Central School District included a photo of three students standing next to a noticeably dirty snowman.
The caption reads, “Today’s CE Fourth Grade Playground Fun! This snowman is just as diverse as our students!”
It didn’t take long for the post to garner hundreds of comments, shares, and reactions, with many accusing the district of implying that the snowman was Black.
“Umm it’s the caption for me SMH (shaking my head),” Robert Dunckle, of Coxsackie wrote.
Another comment asked, “In what way can this be taken in a non-racist way?”
Hours later, the school district deleted the post and issued the following statement on its website, from Superintendent Randy Squier:
“Today a post was uploaded to our Facebook page that has since been deleted. The post was a picture of three kids standing next to the snowman they had created during recess. The post stated, ‘This snowman is just as diverse as our students.’
“The word ‘diverse’ was used to describe how every kid can make a snowman differently and this variety of creativity should be celebrated. When it was commented that this post could be interpreted about race the post was taken down.
We want to apologize and reiterate it was never intended to be hurtful. We are sincerely sorry.”
Squier said the district will use the incident as an opportunity to review its social media policies and procedures, “and continue our commitment to providing a learning environment where every person feels that they belong.”
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