Of course, white students are to blame.
The Facebook group, “I hate the Somalians at Tech High,” didn’tlive online for a long time, but word traveled fast among high schoolstudents in the St. Cloud area.
While that page no longer exists, students of Somali descent say theattitudes expressed on that Facebook page have a strong presence on twoof St. Cloud’s public high schools.
Sahra Alin Ahmed, a Somali student and freshman at Apollo High School,wasn’t surprised by the group’s views as she regularly hears them oncampus.
The atmosphere at the city’s high schools is so hostile to Somalistudents that Alin Ahmed finds herself having to stand up for newlyarrived immigrant students.
“They don’t say anything to the people that know English, but theones who just came from Africa, who don’t really know English, youknow, who don’t really understand, those are the ones they get atmost,” she said.
Somali students now make up about 10 percent of the student populationin the St. Cloud Area School District 742 and their numbers have beensteadily growing. The entire district has about 10,000 students.
Alin Ahmed said white students make disparaging remarks about how theyperceive their Muslim classmates to dress, speak, and smell.
233 12th Ave S
St. Cloud, MN 56301
Phone: 320-252-2231
Fax: 320-529-4328
Email: tech@isd742.org
Principal: Roger Ziemann