Parents of Issaquah High School girl issue statement on racist photo

The parents of the Issaquah High School girl who made a sign reading, “If I was black I’d be picking cotton, but instead I pick you. Tolo?” have released the following statement exclusively to the Dori Monson Show.

Our 17-year-old daughter made a terrible mistake with the sign she used to invite another student to a dance. Her regret is profound and deeply-felt.

We do not condone racism in any form. As her parents, it is our responsibility to have important and meaningful conversations with our daughter about race and racism. We will be doing that and our whole family will learn from this.

We also recognize that there have been other events that have happened within our daughter’s school and school district over time where her sign was the latest in a series of events that reflect that there is a serious culture and climate issue that needs to be addressed. We encourage the school and school district to address these underlying issues, and we ask that this history not be laid at our daughter’s feet.

While we are addressing this as a family and asking the school to address its culture and climate concerns, we are also very worried about daughter’s safety. Our daughter absolutely knows about the impact of her actions.

We ask that before people take to social media, they consider that threatening her and our family or calling her names will not help this situation. There is no judgement that anyone can pass on our daughter right now that she has not already felt.

The Issaquah School District also released a statement earlier this week and said that it is investigating the incident.

Students at Issaquah High School held a walkout on Wednesday in response to the photo to demonstrate that the student body as a whole is not racist.

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