Classmates Claim ‘Friends of Color’ Encouraged White Student to Wear KKK Costume to School

A high school in the San Francisco Bay area is now facing a major controversy after a white student was found wearing a Ku Klux Klan costume on campus.

Officials with the Pittsburg (CA) Unified School District confirmed to local media that the incident took place Wednesday at Pittsburg High School.

Students told KPIX 5 that they first thought the teen was dressed as a ghost. “Everyone assumed he was a ghost at first and then people found out he was a KKK member as a joke,” sophomore Addis Harris explained. “Apparently his friends dared him to do it and because his friends are of color, they thought it was okay. But it’s still not okay.”

Another student echoes Harris: “I was like, why would you dress up like that, why would you come to school like that? And why would your parents let you come to school like that? It’s not okay,” freshman Carter Williams said after seeing the student in the hallway.

This Happened at Pittsburg high school in PITTSBURGH CALIFORNIA…… pic.twitter.com/ZmblM3TW2c

— ✨ i ain't a businesswoman. i’m a business, woman! (@thatsso_chloe) October 29, 2021

School district officials said in a statement obtained by local news station KPIX 5 that a “disturbing and unacceptable incident occurred at the high school where a student wore a KKK costume yesterday, hiding the top part of the costume and wearing it for moments at a time until staff discovered it after fourth period and confiscated it.”

A high school community in the East Bay is reeling Thursday after a student was found wearing a Ku Klux Klan costume on campus. https://t.co/p9Kf1PsO1j

— KPIX 5 (@KPIXtv) October 29, 2021

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Pittsburg High School principal Todd Whitmire said in a separate statement that he has met with the student and his family and that the student claimed he wore the outfit “on a dare”. Principal Whitmire said the student has been assigned consequences and will participate in the school’s restorative justice process, as will the classmates who appeared with the student in costume in the photos that were posted to social media.