UPDATE: School official responds to racist tweet uproar: Both my daughters had black prom dates

Students at Booker T. Washington High School in Norfolk, Virginia walked out of class on Monday to protest a school official’s Twitter message that referred to young black men as a “nightmare” for white fathers.

According to WVEC, the Twitter post was made in June by the school administrator, but students only recently noticed it.

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The tweet was a reposting of a message from an account called @OrNahhTweets. It showed a photograph of seven white girls in prom-style dresses with seven African-American young men in tuxedos. The caption on the photo read, “every white girl’s father’s worst nightmare or not.”

Over a dozen African-American students walked out of classes with protest signs on Monday after they said that school officials and the school board refused to respond to their complaints.

“This was the only actual way we could get someone’s attention, was to walk outside. It shouldn’t have come to this, but [the administrator has] avoided all meetings and public speakings and emails, just avoided them all,” student Michael Lemelle told WVEC.

The students said that they didn’t want the school administrator fired, they just want officials to know how hurtful the tweet was.

“Me being a young African-American, I don’t think of myself as anyone’s worst nightmare,” Lemelle explained.

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Watch the video below from WVEC, broadcast Nov. 18, 2014.