Chapter 2: Did the supporters of Micah Speed – victim of discrimination – save him from more suspension days or even arrest?
Continued from Chapter 1: One Viral Video. Two Students. Impacts on Many by Racial Discrimination in NC Classroom
March 3, 2017, Friday, was a busy day – one day after Micah Speed, a Black student, yanked down his white classmate in front of a hallway of his fellow students.
First, Micah’s friends and fellow student supporters at Wake Forest High School were agitated. Many of them could not wait to speak up to defend him. They started to mobilize on social media to strategize and gather support for him.
Second, one way for Micah’s supporters to speak up and show their support was to post 1-star Google review of WFHS. Some of them wrote, “Justice for Micah” specifically. There were over 20 1-star reviews posted shortly after the March 2 incident.
Third, according to Mrs. Speed, Micah’s mother, WFHS Assistant Principal Mr. Ferebee called her in the morning and informed her of WFHS’s verdict on Micah: 10-day suspension.
Did WFHS admin contemplate to increase, rather than decrease, Micah’s suspension days?
Fourth, Mrs. Speed was about to protest to Mr. F the severity and unfairness of the suspension, because she said, “It doesn’t even make sense.” But before she could do so, she said Mr. F told her something like, “We haven’t even gotten to the incident with the teacher.”
In June 2017, in an interview with Mrs. Speed, she elaborated on her March 3 conversation exchange with Mr. F specifically about teacher X’s action as follows:
Mr. Ferebee said: We haven’t even gotten to the incident with the teacher. [or something to that effect.]
Mrs. Speed: “What do you mean? Are you talking about the teacher who ran up on Micah? If you are talking about that, I have a few things to say about that because she was antagonizing him.”
[According to Mrs. Speed, school officials believed the teacher’s act was to diffuse the situation. However, Mrs. Speed did not agree that was what happened.]
Mr. Ferebee said: Did Micah say anything to her? Did he touch her?
Mrs. Speed: “No,” without arguing with him. But she continued: “We got proof.”
Mr. Ferebee said: Well, what do you mean?
Mrs. Speed: “Oh, there is a video.”
Mr. Ferebee said: Anything you mentioned, you can give me.
Mrs. Speed: “You will get it.”
Sure enough, the video came out in the afternoon.
In December, 2017, I emailed Mr. F and the principal to try to corroborate Mrs. Speed’s account of her conversation with Mr. F above in order to “present a balanced report to the public.” I did not receive their response.
Fifth, before the evening was over, a video was showing up on Instagram, capturing yesterday’s incident. It went viral.
The description under the video stated, “A video posted to Instagram on Friday by Tyler Goodell, who identified himself as a Wake Forest High School student on his Instagram page, shows a black student pulling a white student to the floor before a female teacher intervenes. In his Instagram post, Goodell said the black student, a friend named Micah, was defending himself against racial harassment that Goodell said has been going on for months with no action from the school.”
The video shows Micah yanked down his white classmate forcefully from behind, twice. The last one was after the boy called Micah “a black piece of (expletive).” Right after that, a female teacher, X, confronted Micah. And this is the teacher Mr. F was referring to.
The video showed, as teacher X approached Micah, the other boy started to get up and walk away from and behind Micah. The next few seconds of the video footage showed Micah walking away from the other boy in the opposite direction, while X continued to incite, “Touch me” to him. Luckily, Micah knew better. The video showed he did not touch her.
Did the video and support from his friends save Micah from more severe punishment?
After the video was displayed to the world, according to Mrs. Speed, WFHS officials dropped the issue about teacher X. “Because you can’t dispute what you see when it is black and white,” she said. I asked her questions regarding the video:
Shirley: “Did Tyler or Micah tell you why Tyler didn’t post the video on the same day of the incident, instead of one day later?”
Mrs. Speed, “It was sent to him [Tyler] the same day. The person who posted the video is not the person who took the video.
Shirley: “Really? So, the person who took the video wanted to be anonymous?”
Mrs. Speed, “Yeah. I don’t know who that is.”
Shirley, “Because he or she did not want to be retaliated against or something.”
Mrs. Speed, “Exactly.”
Shirley: “Do you believe, luckily the video exists, otherwise…”
Mrs. Speed, “If it wasn’t for that, I think that it would have been a totally different turnout.”
Shirley: “Do you think Micah could possibly get arrested or put to jail if there was no video to prove that he did not touch the teacher?”
Mrs. Speed, “Definitely.”
Thanks to modern-day technology, truth is revealed. And possibly the future of Micah, an African-American student, had been saved.
A valuable lesson to learn: Do NOT touch a school official or police officer during an incident
There is a truly valuable lesson that Micah has taught all students, not just students of color, without his knowing it. That is, when a student is confronted by a school official or School Resources Officer (SRO), he or she should NEVER ever touch the authority figure in any way or form. There have been way too many incidents across the country when students were arrested for “pushing” the figure away. A push, or even a light touch sometimes, could be cited by the authority as an assault.
To be continued…
What shocked the WFHS admin and WCPSS school officials again on the next school day, March 6, 2017?
