Ladue High School has removed a photo from the school Facebook page after being told by media that a student in the photo was making a “white power” symbol with his hand.
The offending photo, shared on Monday, was taken over a week prior at the November 30 rally before the December 1 Class 4 championship football game between Ladue and Mary Institute Country Day School (MICDS).
In the photo, a white student — sitting next to another student wearing the costume of the Ladue Rams mascot — was flashing the “OK” hand sign.
EVANSVILLE, IN – AUGUST 30: U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks at a campaign rally at the Ford Center on August 30, 2018 in Evansville, Indiana. The president was in town to support Republican Senate candidate Mike Braun, who is facing Sen. Joe Donnelly (D-IN) in November. (Photo by Michael B. Thomas/Getty Images)
Within two hours, Ladue School District Communications Director Susan Downing says that the media had alerted the school district to the racial undertones of the “OK” sign, and staffers removed the photo from the page.
“We just thought it was a cute picture,” Downing said, adding, “I personally have a hard time believing that something like this would be going on overtly and we wouldn’t know about it.”
Ladue High School has been at the center of a number of social justice protests in recent years, rallying behind an openly gay student targeted by the Westboro Baptist Church and hosting die-ins and student walkouts in protest of other racially charged incidents such as the 2014 shooting of Michael Brown.
More than 150 students are marching in front of the Ladue high school grounds. “What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now!” pic.twitter.com/F30425VS7p
— Kristen Taketa (@Kristen_Taketa) November 16, 2016
When the Westboro Baptist Church made a openly gay high school student the target of their enmity, the community of Ladue organized a #StandWithJake rally to silence the hate and support @Jakebain10. https://t.co/7jjH2VmIFT
— Twitter Moments (@TwitterMoments) March 13, 2018
The “OK” sign also came to the forefront during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, when former Kavanaugh clerk Zina Bash was accused of flashing the sign. (RELATED: Liberals Accuse Woman Sitting Behind Kavanaugh Of Being A White Supremacist)
Lawyer husband steps in after Zina Bash, former law clerk to Brett Kavanaugh, becomes target of “vicious conspiracy theory” online — namely that she was making “white power” gesture during the hearing: https://t.co/UmiyluFVNE pic.twitter.com/AkcFP09j2L
— Law & Crime (@lawcrimenews) September 4, 2018
She later trolled the media by doing it intentionally.