Today, someone used a geo-filter to post a Snapchat story accessible to students on the Randolph Campus. The name of the account that posted the story contained a slur, and the story consisted of advertising for the Instagram accounts of two non-SPA high school students. Due to the derogatory and offensive language, the SPA community reacted strongly. Principal Delgado sent out a statement to the community at 2:42 pm today regarding the Snapchat story.

“At this point, we believe that the account which generated this Story was created by a non-SPA student who was visiting our campus. We also believe that this non-SPA student also purchased a geo-filter which automatically pushes this Story out to some combination of Snapchat users who are present on our campus, meaning that many members of our community saw this Story at some point today,” the email said.

In an interview Delgado stressed the school’s stance on the story.

“We want to assure all of you that we are taking this matter very seriously, that we deplore the language used, and stand with all of those in our community who were hurt and offended by the language used in this Story,” he said.

Ninth-grader Remy Frank said, “The name of the story was disrespectful, and if people come in [to our school] who have Snapchat and see that, they will not think greatly about the school.”

Because the story was posted using SPA’s location, many students on campus were confused and offended by the story popping up on their Snapchat throughout the day, including junior Adam Holod. “I was surprised when I saw the story because I didn’t know [the person who posted it],” he said. “…and it was offensive.”

The school administration is currently working to find the person who posted the Story.

This story will be updated as more information becomes available.