- Two high school students faced backlash over a blatantly racist sign used in a
homecoming proposal. - The sign read: "If I were Black, I'd be picking cotton. But I'm white, so I'm picking you for HOCO."
- It's not the first time the phrase was used by high school students to ask a date to a school dance.
A student at a high school in
Last Friday, a photo circulated online of two white students standing shoulder-to-shoulder, holding a sign that read: "If I were Black, I'd be picking cotton. But I'm white, so I'm picking you for HOCO," with two check boxes reading "yes" and "no." Cotton balls were glued onto the sign, and the photo shows the "yes" box was checked.
-Polk County Sheriff Jaylen Cavil (@jaylencavil) September 25, 2021
Later Friday evening, Olathe South High School, where one of the students attends school, said it is investigating the "offensive post circulating on social media."
"I felt it was important to share that we are working to thoroughly investigate the situation and contact all parties involved, including student guardians," Olathe South Principal Dale Longenecker wrote in a statement, citing a report by local
"The type of behavior displayed in the social media post does not meet the expectations of our core values. Any behavior like this will be immediately addressed in accordance with our Student Code of Conduct," Longenecker continued.
St. James Academy, a Catholic school where the other student attends, also condemned the incident and launched an investigation, saying in a statement that "
Rhonda Windholz, the mother of the teenage girl in the viral photo, defended her daughter after she received backlash and death threats in response to the proposal sign.
"Caught up in the excitement of being asked to her first-ever homecoming, our daughter held the sign that was given to her," Windholz told KSHB. "It was only after actually comprehending the situation, that she realized what was happening. She blatantly said no!! By then, it was too late."
"One Caucasian and one African-American boy were involved. It was the African-American boy who actually made the sign, already marked up and took the picture," Windholz added. "This by no means makes it right but should shed some light on the situation."
The racist phrase was used in homecoming proposals in the past across the US. In May 2019, a teen in Ohio used an identical statement when asking another student to prom. The student was banned from attending the school dance.
"What I thought was, how disappointing - this is in 2019 - we are still dealing with this stuff, with racial slurs," Clear Fork Valley Local Schools Superintendent Janice Wyckoff told CNN at the time.
In April 2018, the phrase made an appearance again for a different promposal in Florida. Noah Crowley, a high school student from Sarasota, Florida, asked his girlfriend to the Riverview High School prom, promptly facing criticism for the sign.
"I want to sincerely apologize if I have offended anyone with the picture going around," Crowley wrote in an apology posted on social media, citing a report by local news station WTLV at the time. "That was not my intention. Anyone who knows me ... knows that that's not how we truly feel. It was a completely [sic] joke and it went too far."
In 2017, a similar version of the phrase was used when two girls, who were white, asked another friend, who was Black, to prom at Monarch High School in Coconut Creek, Florida, as part of an inside joke.
A picture that went viral on social media showed the three students holding a sign reading: "You may be picking cotton, but we're picking you to go to prom with us."