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Photoshopped KKK Picture of Montcalm Students Causing Anger

Posted at 6:18 PM, Mar 28, 2018
and last updated 2018-03-28 18:18:50-04

STANTON, Mich.--Central Montcalm schools were just one of the districts closed Wednesday for a threat, but that’s not the only issue the district is investigating.

FOX 17 heard from parents upset after seeing harassing photos involving two students.

Two Central Montcalm middle school students appear to be the victims of a harassing photo circulating among students. One of the girls’ parents said they are angry and hope that speaking up will stop this type of bullying from happening.

“Like she said, this is how school shootings happen,” said Kimberli Rivett, the mother of one of the alleged victims.

Kimberli Rivett is the parent of a middle schooler in Central Montcalm, now upset after her daughter and another student were targeted in harassing photos.

"It was a picture of a KKK meeting and her picture had been photoshopped in," said Rivett.

It’s not clear where the KKK image is from, but Rivett says the original photo of her daughter was taken in class sometime last week and she's upset that this appears to have happened on school property.

“It seems to me that the school is almost trying to push it under the rug so that it doesn’t make it to the light. They want to handle it in house, which I can understand. But, it’s not something that I believe can be handled in house,” said Michael Rivett, the girl's father.

“It angers me. I am emotional about it. But it brings up that anger in me and it does my daughter,” said Kimberli Rivett.

The school did reach out to the parents last Friday after the incident took place. Notifying them that the students involved were punished.

In a written statement, the school’s superintendent said “When we learn of alleged acts of racial or other unlawful harassment or bullying, we promptly investigate..."  going on to say ” we take our policy seriously and diligently enforce it."  But they tell us they cannot reveal any possible punishments for students due to privacy issues.

The Rivetts have reached out to the NAACP, but say they don’t want repercussions for the school administration. They just want to see that the incident is taken seriously.

“I truly don’t want our school to be shut down. I don’t even want our school to be sued over this thing, I just truly want everybody’s eyes to be open,” Michael Rivett said.

“Obviously it happened and we can't take it back so I’m hoping our school be the example of how to handle this situation going forward," said Kimberli Rivette.

The school will meet with both of the students and their parents Thursday to discuss the incident, but the Rivetts say the students who took the photos will not be present.