- A college recruiter representing Oklahoma Christian University was fired after allegedly forcing high school students to line up by skin color and hair texture, local news station KFOR reported.
- According to students at Harding Charter Preparatory in Oklahoma City, the recruiter asked the 11th-grade class to “play a little game” when he was meant to be talking about the university.
- During the exercise, the recruiter asked students to line themselves up with students with the “nappiest hair in the back and straighter hair in the front,” according to one student.
- Visit Insider’s homepage for more stories.
An 11th grade class at the Harding Charter Preparatory in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma expected to hear about the college’s academic opportunities when a recruiter from Oklahoma Christian University visited their high school. Instead, the recruiter had students line up according to skin color – and later, to rank themselves by how “nappy” their hair was.
According to local news station KFOR, college recruiters often stop by the high school, but this one left students stunned and teachers distraught. On February 24, a group of high school juniors gathered in their school’s gymnasium to hear from a man representing Oklahoma Christian University.
However, instead of talking about the school, students claimed the unnamed recruiter asked students to “play a little game” with little to no explanation.
“I could already see through his BS basically,” a student named Korey Todd told KFOR, noting that the recruiter was a “white man” who did not appear to know how to speak to Harding’s diverse student body.
The recruiter told students to line up based on their skin complexion, with those with the lightest skin on one end and those with darker skin on the opposite end. According to high school junior Rio Brown, the recruiter said he wanted to see "who could line up the fastest."
But the college recruiter's "game" didn't stop there.
He then commanded students to rank themselves by their hair texture, with individuals with the "nappiest hair in the back and straighter hair in the front," according to Brown.
This particular activity left both students and teachers at Harding Charter Preparatory uncomfortable and distraught. Brown recalled that some of the high school faculty were so appalled that they walked out of the gymnasium crying.
"Teachers left," Brown recalled to KFOR. "They were crying and they were offended. Their faces just look disgusted. I know they had a talk with him after, like, 'That's not okay.'"
The principal at Harding Charter Prep confirmed the incident, which involved "inappropriate and hurtful statements," did indeed take place.
"I hope it is a wake-up call because many people at the school need to hear how we feel," Brown told KFOR.
Oklahoma Christian University did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment. But, according to KFOR, the unnamed college recruiter was fired shortly after the incident.
"[Oklahoma Christian] admissions leadership did not approve the inappropriate activity in advance and has communicated closely with Harding administration since the visit," a spokesperson from Oklahoma Christian University told the local news station. The spokesperson added that staff with the university's admissions office are scheduled to visit the high school on Monday to apologize to Harding's students and staff.
The news comes shortly after a professor at the nearby University of Oklahoma caused an uproar after comparing the phrase "OK, boomer" to using the n-word.