The backlash, which began Thursday, took place after the school tweeted out a photo congratulating a group of students on becoming recipients of the school's art and writing award.
— fhsnews (@fhsnews14) January 19, 2018
Though nothing seemed off about the picture at first glance, Chris Vasquez, the student in the white shirt, did a double take after noticing a change in his clothing.
"I don't recall myself owning a white t-shirt," Vasquez, tweeted out in response to the image Thursday. "The shirt actually said ‘deport racists' and I would love to know whose decision it was to edit my shirt."
"FHS claims to be a school that celebrates diversity of opinion, yet censors something expressing an anti-racist viewpoint," he added in a separate tweet.
And just like that, the twittersphere erupted as netizens began trickling in, voicing their concerns and even showing off a bit of their own editing skills.
— Brandino🚀 (@HolaimBrandon_) January 19, 2018
— you can't arrest me. i'm the cake boss (@kaydisal) January 20, 2018
— Darius Williams (@DareBear_227) January 19, 2018
With Vasquez's initial tweet taking off and gaining more than 50,000 retweets and over 160,000 likes, school officials took notice and opted to issue an apology the following day and explain why they chose to edit the student's shirt.
"The intent of the edited photo was to make sure that focus remained solely on the scholastic arts awards that our outstanding students have earned," the Friday statement read. "The communications office has acknowledged that the photo should not have been posted and apologized for the miscommunication and frustration that this has caused our students."
The statement later added that more steps would be taken in the matter. However, their attempt at fixing the situation didn't work, people were still upset.
— Woke ✨ (@XoyasmyneXo) January 20, 2018
— findingchristina (@findmein1972) January 20, 2018
It is unclear what further steps the school plans to initiate.
But this isn't the first time that a student's shirt has been censored in school photos. In 2017, two students at New Jersey's Wall Township High School had their pro-Trump shirts censored in the school yearbook, with another saying that her pro-Trump quote was also dumped from the yearbook.
