Six Grosse Pointe South High School students, three boys and three girls, were suspended for five days Monday after a social media post that contained a racial slur quickly went viral.
The photo showed four students. Three of them had with the "N" word scribbled across their stomachs.
According to Grosse Pointe schools Superintendent Dr. Gary Niehaus, the photo was taken Saturday night during a party that some students attended.
"We're not going to tolerate it and we're not going to condone it," Niehaus said. "I think we took good hard action, quick action, actually, to put an end to it."
Two other students were suspended after the school became aware of their involvement.
"On Monday morning, we found that we had two other individuals that has basically turned it into more of the snitching area, the snitch idea and began to threaten students that had snitched," said Niehaus.
Grosse Pointe South principal Moussa Hamka sent a lengthy letter to students and parents yesterday, explaining what had taken place and the action taken.
Greg Bowens is a parent of a Grosse Pointe South senior.
"There were a lot of people who were offended," said Bowens, who is also president of the Grosse Pointe chapter of the NAACP. "They reacted quickly, they took the situation very seriously and they understood, that in our community, a small community, word gets around pretty quickly and it can be very disruptive inside the school."
The students, three seniors and three juniors, are all out of school this week serving their suspension.
