A high school in Belgium is caught up in a social media storm after a picture surfaced of their students donning stereotypical Asian costumes while holding up a “Corona Time” sign. Interestingly enough, the school, Campus College Waregem actually posted the picture on their official social media accounts, reports the Heavy. Backlash ensued and the pictures were deleted from their social media accounts but not before several people screenshotted the image and shared it. The director of the school apologized for the picture.

Campus College Waregem

In the photo, 19 students are seen in stereotypical racist Asian outfits. A couple of them are even in panda outfits. One of the students is seen holding up a “Corona Time” sign while wearing blue latex gloves. Another student even pulls her eyes back.

Campus College Waregem

According to HLN, a Belgian news site, translated by the Heavy, the students planned on wearing the Asian outfits before the coronavirus outbreak for their “100 day celebration” at school. But they decided to add the face masks and the “Corona Time” sign as a “playful nod” to what’s happening in China.

The school director, Philip Demuynck told HLN that the students didn’t intend to offend anyone.

“Neither the school team, nor the students in question, have intended to hurt this photo,” Demuynck said. “We want to apologize explicitly, because we had not correctly estimated the consequences.”

Campus College Waregem did not explain why they thought wearing racist outfits for the student’s 100-day celebration would be okay. Whatever the reason, the picture upset many people.

Actively rooting for coronavirus right now pic.twitter.com/cyWrT1DtPl — Covideo Killed the Radio Star (@bryanyang) March 11, 2020

This is how racist Belgium is. Making fun of the corona virus while linking it to the Asian culture.



But it’s also a country that hasn’t apologised for their colonial past. What did we expect? https://t.co/ss4fjst25q — rosenoellaa (@rosenoellaa) March 11, 2020