KTBS reached out to the parents of one of the students in the picture, who issued a statement which read:
“Our son was referring to the title of a song that is popular among teens. He had no intention of being malicious or hurtful to anyone, especially the child photographed, whom he has already written a letter to apologizing for the whole incident. Although, he did not intend to be hurtful toward anyone, his father and I feel that some counseling regarding cultural sensitivity is warranted. We want to make sure that he has learned a valuable lesson from this experience.”
The school board has since taken action and released a statement saying as much. Grateful for the swift response, the Martin family is still not satisfied.
“This is not going to get pushed under the rug,” Danny Martin said. “He’s going to actually get somebody to speak up for him.”
