A Catholic high school in Philadelphia says that the students responsible for a racist video that showed teenage white girls in blackface are “no longer members of this school community.”
The video, which appeared on social media earlier this month, shows one student at St. Hubert Catholic High School for Girls covering the face of another student with black spray paint while making racial remarks, according to CNN.
“The young women who (sic) responsible for this situation have been identified and they are no longer members of this school community, ” St.Hubert Catholic High School For Girls officials shared in a statement Saturday, CNN reported.
The school announced that it would speak with all its students about its future “safety and healing” plans.
In the video, viewers can reportedly hear a girl saying, “You’re a Black girl! You know your roots! It’s February! You’re nothing but a slave … and after this, she’s doing my laundry,” all while spray-painting another girl’s face black. As this happens, you can hear laughter as one person is recording it on their phone.
“I’m Black and I’m proud,” the student with the blackface on responds, according to CNN.
However, when asked about the video’s alleged distribution to Black students, the chief communications officer for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, Kenneth Gavin, stated that he believed people shared it on social media.
The video appears to have been taken outside of a school setting and after hours. Still, the Catholic school denounced the behavior as “repugnant,” noting that the Anti-Defamation League would host anti-bias seminars for the organization’s staff, faculty, and administration on Feb. 20.