In another incident of appalling judgment from high school students, five football players from Creston High School in Iowa dressed up as the KKK, complete with a burning cross, and took a picture of themselves that ended up on social media.





Creston high school football players literally did this. Makes me embarrassed to be from this town. Y'all are a bunch of cowards and scum. pic.twitter.com/pmkRDk0WVj — Trey C. (@TreyCheers) September 6, 2017

The school says those students have been disciplined, but won’t say what that discipline was. Reports based on things being said from the community say they were suspended for 9 days, which hardly seems like enough. There are apparently only a handful of black students at the school, but imagine how unsafe they must feel right now. This is a form of terrorism, in that it literally sparks terror for the groups being targeted.

And let’s also not forget the role that the election of Donald Trump has to play in this. The blatant bigotry of his campaign, its embrace by white supremacists and endorsement by the KKK, those things don’t just happen in a vacuum. They influence people, especially teenagers, who seem to always be looking for ways to be more tribal and to assert their social dominance over those they perceive to be weak or different. Younger people in general are far less bigoted today than in my generation, but in rural communities that are almost entirely white they’re going to be particularly susceptible to being influenced by such bigotry.