ALBANY, CA (KGO/CNN) - Parents are furious at the Albany school board over lawsuits the district settled to the tune of $400,000 and counting.
"That's what those images meant to you? They meant money? So that you wouldn't get a bad reputation? What is wrong with you?" one angry parent said in a school board meeting.
The money is going to students who posted racist images of students on Instagram last year.
The offensive posts included "images of herself compared to a gorilla and her friends with nooses tied around their necks," said Cheryl Sudduth, whose daughter was among 12 other students and a teacher targeted by the Instagram images. "It was comparing her to an animal, like a lion, because of her red hair and freckles."
Sudduth said after Albany High administrators found out about the racist images, they, along with the school district, took inappropriate disciplinary action against the posters, one of whom was punched in the face by another student.
"There was a lot of raucousness and then they were escorted, almost paraded through a crowd of students," Sudduth said. "It should have been handled in a much more structured way. I think the school failed in that regard."
"While we may not like the subject matter that this deals with, it may be uncomfortable, this is definitely a first amendment case," said attorney Darryl Yorkey, who is representing six of the students who are suing the Albany Unified School District. His clients were involved in the Instagram photos.
"I don't think the school should have disciplined them at all, and really, that comes upon what happened here. This was speech that occurred completely outside of school on a platform that wasn't sponsored by school among students on a private account," he said.
In an open letter, a group of parents listed demands to the school district, including compensating each of the students targeted by the Instagram posts $80,000, the same amount some of the Instagram posters are receiving.
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