“I thought maybe he doesn’t know the history and I thought I’d take an educational approach and inform the student about the history behind this hurtful caption,” the obviously shaken teen told the news station.
The classmate did apologize after Kinzonzi’s explanation of the history of the slur, and although the teen has gotten a lot of support from students at the school, she has also faced additional harassment. Kinzonzi’s family is demanding that the school do more, after being unimpressed by the school district’s response.
“This was a threat made on her life, and there was a call for others to participate in this. The caption said ‘we’ must lynch her,” her mother, Nicole Kinzonzi emphasized.
The teen’s grandmother, Drusilla Kinzonzi, also voiced that there should be more sensitivity training for staff and students and more diversity in the school’s administration.
“And if we’re not teaching all of American history, we are not teaching,” she added.
In the meantime, the family has hired civil rights attorney Michael Sussman to help them navigate the issue.
“We have to address these issues as painful as it is, as difficult as it is,” Sussman said. “We have to demand other resolutions and solutions because we keep coming back to the same place around here. That’s the problem.”
The family has a meeting scheduled with the school’s superintendent on Monday, but Kinzonzi only wants one thing to come out of this.
“I want me to be the last person in Minisink, in Orange County, in New York, to ever have to go through this,” said Kinzonzi.