Thread by @JamieFord

@jbenton Ah, I remember that all too well. There were two things that mortified me about that day.

The first was that as it was happening, I looked off-stage and the Principal was standing there, staring at his shoes. He did nothing to stop it. A few teachers were actually crying.

@jbenton The other was that when I got back to my hotel, I was inundated with emails from marginalized kids (and teachers) in that school. They shared their horror stories, but also begged me not to mention any of them for fear of reprisals.

@jbenton That's the real reason I wrote that essay. For those kids. I can mention it now because 4 years have passed and they've all graduated. But it was like, "Hi, I'm the one Korean kid and they bully me constantly." One was, "I'm overweight and they tell me to kill myself every day."

@jbenton Then the threatening emails from parents rolled in. From parents WHO WERE NOT THERE that day--who told me how they were going to kick my ass for harassing their children who did nothing wrong.

FYI, I've visited 100+ schools. HP was the only one where students called me a chink.

@jbenton I did have a meeting with the Principal after. He apologized and said he couldn't do much because he's too busy fighting anti-semitism within the school (and meeting with the Jewish parents) to address the racism.

Ah, good times.

@jbenton It's worth noting that many of the marginalized students who were stuck in that mob of Freshman in 2017, addressed the school directly as seniors, asking for change. Not sure if they were heard or not. dmagazine.com/frontburner/20…

@jbenton Forgot to mention that a keynote speaker before me was Jeannette Walls, who wrote The Glass Castle. A group of parents had her book banned before she arrived. #awkward

@jbenton Also, some teachers mentioned that Romeo & Juliet was banned for "sexual content" when they suspected it was actually because the cover of the book had a Black Romeo and a white Juliet.