Lake Central administrators met with students earlier this week to hear greivances in an attempt to prevent a potential protest, according to an email sent to parents Monday.
In the message, Principal Sean Begley said about 30 students met with administrators throughout the day.
The purpose was to “discuss concerns posted via social media regarding race issues at Lake Central High School,” he wrote.
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“The message we received today was many students don’t feel safe or welcomed,” Begley wrote. “This was clearly evidenced by inappropriate graffiti in our school and social media posts that are just plain wrong and stand contrary to what we believe at Lake Central.”
“We must do better to rectify this and we will,” he said.
State figures show Lake Central students in 2016-17 were 73.5 percent white, 12.9 percent Hispanic, 6.6 percent African-American, 3.4 percent Asian and 3 percent multiracial.
Begley said his staff was hoping to prevent a potential protest, according to the email.
“From the input we received from all the students attending today is they do not plan on participating in a protest at LCHS. These students want what every person should expect — to be heard and to be respected,” he wrote. “I believe we started to go in a positive direction towards reaching this goal and hope that every LCHS family will contribute by teaching respect, tolerance and celebrating differences.
“As I believe today’s event prevented a student protest, I am troubled to hear some students wanting to wear all black and some students wanting to wear all white, Begley said. “I would implore everyone (students and staff) that cares about LCHS that we move in a direction of unity and wear BLUE.”
Lake Central’s school colors are blue and white.
Begley was not immediately available for comment on Wednesday afternoon. Superintendent Larry Veracco said the district is examining how best to address student concerns.
“Some of the things that they heard were legitimate,” he said. “If (students) are hearing racial epithets, that needs to be addressed as quickly as possible.”
Staff told students to report any troubling incidents — whether verbal, graffiti or on social media — as soon as possible rather than waiting months or weeks, Veracco said.
Twitter @meredithcolias