I'll stop assuming what you're saying when yo stop assuming that I'm angry. I'm not even sure why you quoted me in the first place when I made it clear in that original post that I don't think there's merit in classifying people who utilize nooses as pointed attacks against black peers are either misinformed or potentially good. Even a glancing familiarity with the noose requires an understanding of its historical use particularly in American history.
There's effort involved in shaming which isn't expended in ostracizing. By which, I mean I'm not interested in learning these peoples names. I'm not interested in emailing their bosses about what their children did in school. All I'm interested in is a letter that tells their families to find another school to put their children in because this one will not accept them any longer. From there, they're free too believe that life is unfair and that the school removed them for a simple prank, move to a new school and act as though nothing happened or they're free to re-evaluate why their kids have been expelled and discuss among themselves why it was wrong and grow on their own.
My apologies for assuming you were angry. It's difficult to guess the tone of a post, so me (and I bet many others as well), tend to just assume that when a post has giant paragraphs that it leans on the side of emotional. Again, my apologies for making that assumption.
I absolutely agree that these kids should be expelled from the school. If you read an earlier post in this thread you will see that I even am open to the idea of trying these racists as adults.
I was more just emphasizing the idea that when dealing with racists (which again, I agree that it shouldn't be just your job to do, but the job of everyone who isn't a bigot), it works best to separate people who do or say hateful things into 2 distinctive categories:
1) The ignorant and misinformed (people who have incorrect views but are open to learning new information that contradicts their assumptions): these are people that CAN be educated. Some will take longer than others, but they can be turned into good people.
2) The outright bigoted (people so entrenched in their bigotry that they reject any and all information that contradicts their assumptions): these people will never stop being bigots and the best you can hope for is that they get shamed and humiliated to the point that they go into hiding, both because we won't have to deal with them as much and because it makes them less influential on that first category.
Well these kids have 21 more years before they're seen as adults so they have plenty of time to change. The victim should forgive them and take the time to educate them on why their behavior is wrong, teachable moment to be sure. MLK said progress is slow and steady, and you can only fight hate with love.
What about both punishing these kids (even trying them as adults) AND having people step in to educate them and pull them away from their parents' bigoted influences.