A photo alleging to show a group of white high school students wearing matching “White Lives Matter” t-shirts has put a Pennsylvania school district in the middle of a growing controversy.
In the Snapchat photo, which was featured in a VICE News report from Samir Ferdowsi on Tuesday and was previously circulated on Facebook and Reddit, several students are seen wearing the white shirts while standing in front of an assortment of trucks and/or truck-like vehicles.
According to Ferdowsi, who included comments from several anonymous community sources in Tuesday’s report, those pictured wearing the shirts are students from Montgomery Area High School in Montgomery, Pennsylvania. Some of the pictured students, one source said, were seniors. The photo was taken on the final day of classes for the year.
As made clear by those who anonymously addressed the photo in Tuesday’s report, this type of behavior is unfortunately indicative of how many in the predominantly white and Christian town believe. In fact, as one source explained, attempting to “go against the grain” at all is often allegedly met with attempted bullying.
At the time of this writing, school representatives had not shared a public statement regarding the photo. Complex has reached out to the school’s principal and the district superintendent for comment and will update this post accordingly.
In an open letter published in the regional paper The Williamsport Sun-Gazetteearlier this month, a concerned citizen referenced the photo and said a public apology should be made.
“I’m horrified for the targeted students, staff, and those that attend that do not align with such bigotry,” the letter reads.
Back in April, a so-called “White Lives Matter” rally organized by far-right white supremacists in Huntington Beach, California was brought to an end by local authorities not even two hours after it began.
And though it certainly shouldn’t need clarifying, “White Lives Matter” is indeed a racist reaction to Black Lives Matter. Previously, the Southern Poverty Law Center nonprofit identified White Lives Matter as a hate group, with many rallies and affiliated events being linked to other neo-Nazi groups.
