It started with a mock ‘slave trade’ and a school resolution against racism. Now a war over critical race theory is tearing this small town apart.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — Nevaeh Wharton was busy with homework one evening in late April when her phone pinged with a warning. A friend had texted to say something disgusting was happening in a private Snapchat group chat.
When the 16-year-old woke the next morning, another message was waiting for her: She had been discussed in the group. Pretty soon the whole story trickled out. A group of mostly White students attending two of Traverse City’s high schools, including Nevaeh’s, had held a mock slave auction on the social media app, “trading” their Black peers for money.
“I know how much I was sold for: one hundred dollars,” said Nevaeh, who is half-Black. “And in the end I was given away for free” — to the friend who first warned her about the group.
The Snapchat group, titled “slave trade,” also saw a student share the messages “all blacks should die” and “let’s start another holocaust,” according to screenshots obtained by The Washington Post. It spurred the fast-tracking of a school equity resolution that condemned racism and vowed Traverse City Area Public Schools would better educate its overwhelmingly White student body and teaching staff on how to live in a diverse country.
But what happened over the next two months revealed how a town grappling with an undeniable incident of racism can serve as fertile ground for the ongoing national war over whether racism is embedded in American society.
Events in Traverse City would demonstrate how quickly efforts to address historic disparities or present-day racial harassment in schools can become fodder for a campaign against critical race theory, fueled by White parents’ growing conviction that their children are being taught to feel ashamed of their Whiteness — and their country.
The equity resolution was unprecedented in Traverse City, an idyllic lakeside vacation spot with a population of 16,000 that is more than 90 percent White and politically split between red and blue. The two-page document, inspired by nationwide protests in the wake of George Floyd’s death last year, suggested more training for teachers and adding overlooked viewpoints to the school system’s libraries and curriculum.
Although at first it drew vocal support — especially from families and children of color — it has since inspired equally vehement opposition, led by mostly White, conservative parents who contend that the resolution amounts to critical race theory in disguise. The theory, known as CRT, is a decades-old academic framework that holds racism is systemic in America, but which has become a catchall phrase conservatives wield to oppose equity work in schools.
At base, the conflict roiling Traverse City stems from two ways of viewing the world, and the town.
In interviews, children of color in Traverse City reported enduring years of harassment in the classroom and on the playing field. Black, Native American and LGBTQ students said casual racism, sexism and homophobia form part of daily life. Some White children said they have witnessed this, too.
The Snapchat incident was unsurprising to them: “I was more surprised that somebody found out about it and it got to the news,” said Eve Mosqueda, 15, who is Native American and Mexican, adding that other kids throughout elementary school had asked her if she lived in a teepee.
But White parents say their hometown was never racist — at least not until an obsession with race began infecting the school system through its embrace of CRT, an allegation school officials have denied. Now, these parents say, their children are coming home from school feeling ostracized for their conservatism and worried they must adhere to a liberal agenda to earn good grades on their assignments. The parents declined to make their children available for interviews, saying the students were either not interested or feared being labeled racist for sharing their beliefs.
“We don’t, not even for a second, think about race,” said Darcie Pickren, 67, a vocal leader of the anti-CRT movement who is White, with Irish and Native American ancestry, and two of whose children graduated from the school system. “We never would. And I think that this is opening a can of worms and we are not going to be able to go back.”
Added Sally Roeser, 44, a White mother of two who graduated from Traverse public schools: “We were all brought up not to take someone’s race into consideration. That’s what we’re guaranteed in America.”
'We knew it wasn't in perfect form'
The Snapchat scandal drew intense local media coverage, widespread outrage and, pretty soon, investigations from Traverse City Area Public Schools and the Grand Traverse County prosecutor’s office — which culminated in the recommendation that the students in the “slave trade” chat receive counseling and empathy training.
It also meant that Marshall Collins Jr., 44, an African American father of two children in the school system, received an urgent message from Traverse City school officials.
“It was like, ‘We need to speed up the equity resolution and get it there now,’ ” said Collins, who serves on the Traverse City schools social equity task force and heads an anti-racist group known as E3 Northern Michigan, whose triple E stands for “Educate, Elevate, Engage.”
The equity resolution stated that the school system condemned “racism, racial violence, hate speech, bigotry, discrimination and harassment.” It called for holding more “comprehensive” training for teachers, adding historically marginalized authors to school libraries and reviewing the district’s “curriculum and instruction [to] address gaps . . . from a social equity and diversity lens.”
The resolution was born of discussions between equity task force members and top school officials, Collins said, including curriculum director Andrew Phillips.
The task force itself, comprising teachers, administrators, parents and students, had come together near the end of 2020. But its genesis dated to Traverse City’s first Black Lives Matter Rally, which Collins helped organize over the summer in a pretty lakeside lot downtown. Afterward, he said, school staffers had contacted him, asking, “Can we talk?”
As schools expand racial equity work, conservatives see a new threat in critical race theory
Collins was more than willing. He wanted to make his almost exclusively White hometown more welcoming to families that looked like his own. One of the first steps, he believed, required eradicating the everyday racism still directed toward students of color. Collins knew this firsthand: His son was recently called the n-word by a classmate, the child of his son’s favorite teacher.
As summer waned into fall, Collins said he joined Zoom meetings with a string of administrators. That led to the equity task force, he said, and to some immediate changes such as the district inviting a speaker to discuss “implicit bias” with teachers before the first day of school.
So, although disheartened by the “slave trade” Snapchat, Collins was feeling fairly optimistic when he got the flurry of messages from school administrators on a Monday morning in May. They asked if the social equity task force could introduce the equity resolution at a board meeting that evening.
“We knew it wasn’t in perfect form,” Collins said. “But they wanted to speed it up, so we sped it up” — and debuted the resolution to the public for the first time on May 24.
Not too long after the May meeting, 11-year-old Eden Burke and her best friend, Estelle Young, 12, were picked up after school by their mothers, who had something to tell them.
Estelle’s mother explained what happened on Snapchat. She said the adults at school were trying to fix it by putting out a statement that would let everyone know that sort of behavior is not okay.
Eden’s mother gave a similar summary. She said the adults were now “deciding whether or not to talk about racism in school,” Eden remembered.
Estelle, who is White, recalls feeling horrified. She could not understand why anyone would think it was funny to suggest owning their Black classmates. Then she thought about the girl at school — one of the only students of color in Estelle’s grade — whom kids called “Lilo” instead of her real name, because they said the girl’s dark skin made her look like the Hawaiian protagonist of the movie “Lilo and Stitch.”
Eden, who is also White, thought about the boys in her math class. The ones who sat behind her and whispered “niagra” to each other as a stand-in for the n-word, to avoid getting in trouble with the teacher. She thought about the kid who used “gay” as an insult, and the students who asked her why she was wearing rainbow colors, then put their thumbs down when she explained it was Pride Month and she wanted to support her LGBTQ friends.
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So a group of white kids thought it would be "fun" to conduct a slave auction on snapchat where they would buy and sell their non white classmates. And this was in an almost all white town.
But they dont need any race sensitivity instruction? lol
The words I have to say
May well be simple but they're true
Until you give your love
There's nothing more that we can do
Love is the opening door
Love is what we came here for
No-one could offer you more
Do you know what I mean
Have your eyes really seen
You say it's very hard
To leave behind the life we knew
But there's no other way
And now it's really up to you
Love is the key we must turn
Truth is the flame we must burn
Freedom the lesson we must learn
Do you know what I mean?
Have your eyes really seen?
www.record-eagle.com /news/hate-chat-area-students-hold-mock-slave-auction-spew-racist-rhetoric-online/article_c029d4b4-a446-11eb-905f-23f68b0c0468.html
HATE-CHAT: Area students hold mock slave auction, spew racist rhetoric online
Brendan Quealy bquealy@record-eagle.com 7-9 minutes
TRAVERSE CITY — Racist exchanges between a group of teenagers on a social media platform are at the center of attention of parents, educators, advocates and law enforcement.
Students from two area school districts are the focus of both school and law enforcement investigations launched Friday after officials learned of a discussion titled “Slave Trade” on the social media platform Snapchat. The students are accused of participating in a group exchange where photos of Black students were posted by some and others placed bids for them.
Pictures of messages viewed by the Record-Eagle included crude and sexual comments, racial and anti-LGBTQ slurs, demeaning comments about students with autism and racist stereotypes.
Nevaeh Wharton — a 15-year-old biracial student at Traverse City Central High School — said she was both angry and disgusted as she became aware that some of her peers, her classmates and even her friends took part in the social media exchange that targeted her and several others.
Wharton said a student from Traverse City West Senior High School created the private Snapchat account.
“I didn’t know what to think, but I wasn’t crazy surprised considering the kids who were in it,” Wharton said.
Wharton was hesitant to speak out, but felt she must.
“I’d like to just get through everything and then forget about it,” she said. “It’s not really something you can forget about, but it’s not something I want to keep talking about. But I don’t want it to happen again — to anyone.”
Wharton said the student from West previously created a private Snapchat story he called “Hitler’s Summer Camp.”
“That was messed up, but no one seemed very bothered by it,” Wharton said.
Both Wharton and her mother, Jala Sue, spoke with a Grand Traverse County sheriff’s deputy Friday about the incident.
Grand Traverse County Sheriff’s Capt. Randy Fewless confirmed the department is investigating the matter and will be interviewing those involved with and affected. Fewless said deputies are working with Traverse City Area Public Schools officials to identify the students.
Wharton believes another in the group, a student who called for genocide against Black and Jewish people, is a student at Benzie Central High School. Benzie Superintendent Amiee Erfourth did not return a call for comment as of 9:30 p.m. Friday.
Wharton said one of the students included in the chat was, but no longer is, a close friend.
“He never bid on anyone — which is gross to say — but he was sincere when he apologized, at least more sincere than the other one,” Wharton said. “He was a really good friend.”
Wharton said the teen tried to describe his actions as a joke.
Wharton told him, “Jokes are meant to be funny. This isn’t funny.”
“I never thought anything like this would ever happen to me,” Wharton said.
Watching her daughter read the messages for the first time was heartbreaking for Sue.
“To see my daughter’s face with a bid underneath it ... to see them going back and forth talking about her like she’s this object for sale and should be dead because of how she looks, it was just complete rage,” Sue said.
The messages are only a symptom of a “much larger” and deep-seated issue, Sue said.
“The world is so broken, right now,” she said. “You want to put up a fight and do what’s right. Let’s open this and expose it.”
Some who read the messages could not stop from having a visceral reaction.
Irene Miller is an author and a speaker. She is also a Holocaust survivor.
Miller said she had to read the messages several times because she could not believe she was reading it correctly. Such hate among high school students should not exist and outrage should be spreading through the community, Miller said.
“They should know about the horror among them,” she said.
Miller refuses to excuse the behavior because of the students’ age. She said they are not kids, they are not joking. Some will be able to vote in a year or two, and that worries Miller.
“They are not totally ignorant. They know,” she said. “The source of that illogical hate is just incredible.”
Miller wants to come to Traverse City and speak at one of the high schools. A message needs to be delivered, she said.
“I am so overwhelmed to know that a thing like that could exist among high school students — the notion of the right of one human being to kill another just because you don’t like the color of their skin,” she said.
The incident is similar one in Aledo, Texas, that was revealed less than two weeks ago. High school students there also held a mock slave auction on Snapchat.
Wharton’s mother is calling for TCAPS officials to expel all students involved.
Superintendent John VanWagoner and Board of Education President Scott Newman-Bale said the issue likely will be discussed at the Monday board meeting.
“It’s not going to be an easy conversation, but it’s one we’re going to have to have,” Newman-Bale said. “It will be tough to get through this.”
Officials from Northwest Education Services also are expected to be at the meeting. North Ed Superintendent Nick Ceglarek said they are working to address discrimination throughout the five counties North Ed serves.
“Dehumanization, discrimination and other acts of cruelty are unacceptable behaviors that have no place in our schools or anywhere else in society, and those transgressions should never be tolerated or overlooked,” Ceglarek said. “Ignorance is not an excuse.”
Diane Emling is a retired professor and author of “Institutional Racism and Restorative Justice: Oppression and Privilege in America.” Snapchat groups like those in Traverse City and Texas show a sense of entitlement and a willful ignorance toward what students know is right and what they know is wrong, she said.
In a community like Traverse City that is largely white, Emling said the students involved feel as if they own the school and can get away with anything.
The mindset that such rhetoric and behavior is not only allowable but admirable in some cases has come from “the highest level” in the last several years, Emling said. Behavior is modeled, and recent actions have reinforced and excused that behavior.
“One person gets it started, and then someone else goes, ‘Well, if this is an acceptable thing, I can chime in, too,’” Emling said.
The best solution to the problem, Emling said, is not punishment. A suspension or expulsion is easier for those students. The difficult approach — the one that could make a difference, Emling said — would be for them to sit down across from the person they hurt and truly own up to the hurt they inflicted.
Wharton isn’t sure she wants to talk, but she agrees with Emling that punishment is probably not the lone route to go.
“I want them to learn,” Wharton said. “I want them to really know, to really understand what they did. And they didn’t just do it to me.”
Tearing the small town apart? Hardly.
Now nearly 2000 shootings in six months? That will really tear a city apart.
Except there seems to be a lot of racism in the school. How could that happen if no one thinks about race, not even for one second? How do children think they should ask Native children if they live in a teepee, have an online "slave auction" or call other the n***r?
If the "liberal agenda" is teaching their children not to be a bigoted, racist, misogynistic douchcanoe then they should either embrace it or move their children to one of those all white religious schools on their own dime.
C'mon man .... did you go to High school? Tasteless, immature, racist/bigoted innuendo gets used in every HS, every day, in every town in the USA. It's generally not systemic Racism or Bigotry. It's generally simply a lack of maturity.
The schools main job is to teach our kids how to read, write and add. Not to program morality. That's the parents/families job. The last people that should be teaching our kids morality are the worker drones teacher unions are hiring these days. That is not their job, not at all.
There are tens of millions of racists in America. Presumably many of them have kids.
Of course schools should counteract the racism kids are learning at home.
I was over at one of my nephews house a couple years ago for a small family gathering when at one point his five teenage kids were seated around one table doing their thing when a group of nearby adults, including their two parents, began talking negatively about black people. The teenagers heard every word of it.
This stuff goes on all the time in American homes, dont fool yourself.
And there is the fundamental problem that needs resolution.
Make no mistake, if public schools continue down the path you suggest, they will PC themselves even further into oblivion. The solution is nothing new.
If kids break school policy they should be warned not to do it again. If they do it again they should be sent home for a period. If they do it again after that they chould be permanently expelled.
No need to go full tilt Big Brother on their ass with their indoctrination du jour.
That's unsubstantiated bullshit. If the parents can't teach morality, the schools most certainly can't
We have been through all this before . There are at least 100 million white adults in America. Surveys have shown as many as half of all adults admit to some level of racial prejudice.
It's learned behavior from others and the lack of maturity doesn't make it okay.
I seem to remember being taught basic manners in grade school.
They've failed.
I never said "that stuff" doesn't go on around the country. I said it's not the schools job to correct it.
Which I suspect is pretty much BS. I suspect that what's being called racial prejudice would more aptly be described as cultural prejudice, not racial. But the left insists on it being racial. That's by intent for a political goal, not in pursuit of truth. They create a problem for the purpose of imposing a solution they politically desire.
I never said it was okay, i said that it's what happens in every HS in this country..
And did everyone of your classmates take to those lessons and become perfect little Emily Posts? That's right, they all didn't ......
Perhaps but it's not your job or the schools to judge that. The school doesn't like the way the kid acts they can expel him.
Problem solved without resorting to dystopian style discipline.
Funny, I dont hear a lot of conservative leaders denigrating [Deleted]
[Deleted]
I don't hear them trashing lawful minorities either. I'd mention how much Trump did to help minorities during his Presidency but i know that would fall on deaf ears.
Liberal leaders on the other hand love to trash the allegedly out of control white supremacy "menace" goosestepping through every town USA ...
Scary, very scary .../S
White trash? Do you know that term has the same intended degradation as nigger? And what do you consider a white trash person to be? Someone who lives a certain way? Believes certain things? I don't know, has a certain culture? And since the adjective "white" is apparently necessary to identify which trash is being talked about, does that not imply other people are classified as trash from which white trash has to be distinguished? Like black trash or Asian trash?
Anyway, why would any political leader, Progressive or Conservative, denigrate any group, if they in fact do so? Say, call a segment of the population a basket of deplorables? Probably because it suits their political purposes.
This doesn't really address my point, however. It's just whataboutism.
You are going around in circles. You said that people dont denigrate blacks because of race but because of culture. What culture would that be? If you denigrate black people as a group it is racism no matter what the supposed justification is.
That still sounds like an excuse.
It was in school, on television and in books for children. One doesn't need to be an "Emily Post" to know it's wrong to call others n***r.
I'm fine ruining some racist high schoolers' run in sports or academics with an expulsion rather than a slap on the wrist and an hour of instruction on how to be nice to each other.
Hahahaha! Hoooo that's hilarious. Let me know when any school starts strapping children into chairs and prying their eyes open forcing them to watch Roots and 10 Years a Slave. Hahahaha! Dystopian style discipline... HAhahahahahaa!
That comment specified exactly who she was talking about, and it wasn't just conservatives in general.
"You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump's supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right? They're racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic – you name it."
So those she was talking about are "racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic". If you self-define as being "racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic" then according to Hillary you're a deplorable human. I tend to agree with her even though I didn't like her much. Her 'deplorable' comment has rung true, at least half of Trumps base turned out to be just such people.
As for 'white trash', you're right, the adjective 'white' is completely unnecessary, they should just be referred to as 'trash' and they are made up of those who ridicule education, embrace bigotry, admire the confederacy, believe America 'belongs' to them even though they've never achieved anything more than finishing some fried food eating challenge at a local restaurant, blame others for all their faults and their lack of employment, spend the money their wife gave them for baby formula of a 24 pack of Pabst, then you're very likely 'trash'.
I didn't say anything about denigrating anyone. I said that what your survey mentions about half the adults mentioned more likely had a problem with culture, not race.
One that produced uneducated, fatherless kids that grow up to be either criminals, on welfare or both. One where drugs, money and sex at any cost is the highest achievement. One where they sit around expecting everyone else to fix their problems for them than do it themselves.
See? There's nothing in that about race. it's about behavior.
You see, the reason culture works better than race is that I'd bet anything that most of those 50 million people you speak of don't think that all black people live in the same culture. And, I bet those cultural prejudices apply just as much to any other groups within any other race that do the same things. That is, they don't talk about black people as one block, as you seem wont to do. Take a look at Dismayed Patriot two posts down. He certainly has a prejudice against the people he thinks of as trash. Because those people are white do you think he therefore is prejudice against white people?
No, actually, I couldn't. I'd have to know each and every one of them first, to know whether or not I could.
According to whom? See? That's kinda the problem. Take homophobic, for instance. All you have to do to be homophobic, according to some, is believe practicing homosexuality is immoral. But because someone might believe that they must also want to hunt down homosexuals and murder them or something. Put them in prison. Make them listen to Hillary Clinton speeches.
And sexist? That doesn't even have a definition since what determines what is sexist is up to each individual woman at any given moment. Literally anything could be sexist.
Um, yeah. Lots of people self define as those things. Right. I think you mean if you're thought of as those things by someone else, regardless of whether you actually are or not, then you're deplorable. I mean, seriously, who self defines as those things?
Um, overly stereotypical, but whatever. Question is, are they those things because they are white or because of their culture? If it is because they are white, why aren't all white people that way? If it is culture, why would not the same apply to other races?
Followed by:
I'm not sure you get how utterly racist these statements are.
John, did you step in and say something to those people, who I presume at least one or two were rlatives of yours?
No?
Then you are an enabler.
There is a black population of approximately 13 percent in this country. That is about 40 million. How many of them do you think are racist?
Funny I don't hear alot of progressive leaders denigrating white liberals who are hellbent on destroying this country.
Oh, that's right, they can't because they are their voters.
Facts are never excuses. They are facts
Didn't answer the question i see ....... SOSDD
Perfect, if that's how the school board for that particular school district decides they want to handle it, so be it. You've got nothing to say about unless it's your school district, you are on the board and/or you speak your mind in front of your school board. It is telling however that you would single out athletes only for such action. Telling as hell.
[deleted]
I was going to post point for point, but it's useless. You can't support your arguments so you largely go on a personal attack, misrepresent what I actually said and outright lie.
I dont know how many blacks are racist. I do know that black racism is almost entirely a reaction to white racism. From the very beginning, black people arrived in America as subjugated, coerced, and mistreated. Do you blame any blacks that may have a grudge against whites , given the way their black ancestors were treated? Take that "whites are victims too" garbage to somebody else.
I understand, you've got nothing rationally compelling on the topic to debate with.
You never did but that was really one of my main points to begin with.
It's not healthy or rational even to hold grudges for years let alone hundreds of years. IMO that is just greed, plain and simple.
That said, African Americans in the USA can get their reparations from me and mine when they pry it out of my cold dead hands
We don't owe them a damn thing today but i'd happily give them a job if they were willing to work for a living like the rest of us human beings on this rock
When I was in high school, we had what was called Slave Day. Seniors would bid on incoming freshmen. For the day, we would have to do things like carry their books and bring their lunches to them. My "owner" bought six of us. We carried him on a litter to his classes. We had to pass by the pool to take him to gym class and we walked near the edge. Then we conveniently lost our balance and in he went. SD was good clean fun and no one took offense.
How many of the kids had ancestors who may have been actual slaves in America? I dont doubt that the white kids in Michigan thought it was "fun" to do this, but unless the kids of color were in on and in agreement with the "fun" then it is wrong.
We had students of all colors and races. No one took offense that I can recall.
Same here. I went to High School in the early 80's.
Color/race never mattered. Popularity did. The more popular the student/slave the higher the bidding went.
I never participated either as a "slave" or a "master". Had better things to do with my time and money. I do admit I watched the auctions.
The black and native American kids in Michigan did not voluntarily participate.
How would you know? Did you grow up there?
John, you don't get it. It wasn't a racist thing at all. Sometimes it was a popularity thing, other times it was to punish someone you didn't like as Paula said making them carry the person around for the day.
The last thing it was was racist but then again "woke" wasn't created yet in the 60's. Not around this city anyway.
We were not required to participate either but I did because it seemed like harmless fun. Looking back, it probably was not a good idea, but it was not a PC world back then and I would not participate if I were now just starting high school.
I read the seeded article? Did you?
I read the article but didn't need to, i lived it.
If you are talking about "slave day" at Michigan High Schools; then you don't know what the hell you are talking about. Color of skin didn't matter; it was a game among the more popular students to see who could get the most money. It was a popularity contest, a way of showing status. African Americans, Asians, Latinos, and yes Whites (no not them), all participated both as slaves and masters. No "slave" was whipped, beaten, abused, or forced to do anything against their will. Everything was done in fun.
Guess they should have changed the name to "indentured servant day"; since the snowflakes on the left didn't give a damn about those people.
How long ago was that?
I was a freshman in 1967.
That explains it. Were there black students?
"Slave Day" was still going when I graduated High School in 1986.
See post 6.1.8- as to who participated.
Only freshmen? When I went to high school it was two days. One day for the girls (to be slaves) and one day for the guys (to be slaves). Freshmen, Sophomores, Juniors, and Seniors all were auctioned off- it was all voluntary. All of the money went to charity (It was a different one each time).
Was there some friction? Of course.
Nothing pissed a senior off more than a freshman winning auction of an upper classman. It was a very brave freshman that ventured into the upper classman area during auction day. Nothing stopped upper classman from bidding on Freshman.
Some of the prices got a little outrageous with students banding together resources to get their chosen "slave". That never worked out well. Cheerleader pushing a wheel barrel full of books, backpacks, etc from class to class for her masters just made everyone very late. Some leeway was granted; but getting to class on time was still a must.
I was wondering where you all went to school. I never heard or seen things like this.
I went to a boys Catholic high school in the 60's. I think we would have gotten expelled for doing something like that.
These people must be talking about those permissive public schools.
I was just curious. My school life was in Maryland. I don't remember anything like that.
Well lets hope it has not been widespread.
Oxnard CA. I can't change the past but I can still learn from it.
I graduated from High School in 1980. I don't recall anything like that.
I was just wondering if maybe it was a regional thing. Not judging.
We went to school in the same area, I think.
SE PA. I have never heard of it either, as a school function or a charity fundraiser.
We had slave day a couple of years, Seniors were the slaves to raise money for their senior trip
Did they meet their goal? I don't recall what the proceeds from ours was used for.
I don't know, I remember some group or club was always trying to raise money
I only remembered it when I saw your post, had not thought about it since school
I kinda miss that.
Traverse Connect | Traverse City Chamber of Commerce
A slave auction fundraiser? An abominably bad idea!
Can't believe adults didn't put an immediate stop to it.
Ok, well . . . that's insane. I'm not sure what else to say. What makes people settle on that? Was no one interested in mock rape that day?