'Have our backs': Students and parents rally over Shawnee Mission East racist incident

Students, parents, community leaders and activists held a protest to support Black students in the Shawnee Mission School District after a video of a white male student verbally and physically assaulting a Black female student went viral on social media earlier this week.
More than 80 students and parents from across the Kansas City metro gathered in the cold and rain outside the Shawnee Mission School District’s Center for Academic Achievement in Prairie Village on Thursday evening.

They were angry about what they described as the district's lackluster response to a white male student using racial slurs and repeatedly punching a Black female student in the face, which garnered attention after the Kansas City Defender posted a video of the incident on social media.

The incident sent Brey’anna Brown to the hospital with a broken nose and facial contusions, her family said at the protest.

The crowd chanted “Have our backs,” “Justice for Brey,” and “If not now, then when?” in response to what they called a hate crime.

Brown, who was at the protest, said the school needs to enforce harsher consequences for racist behavior.