Uncomfortable Story.

I've been sitting on a story for a week, because I couldn't quite get my head around it.
The High School - Mount Aspiring College - MAC for short, was having their 'Formal'. They hold it at the end of summer, for the Yr's 12 and 13. There is a formal dinner, which comes under the auspices of the school and then an informal 'after party' which doesn't, but is supported by parents and kept an eye on by the police so that they get some freedom, but don't go crazy. The Formal is a big event on the calendar and involves dressing up and taking a date - very like the Prom stuff you see in American Movies.
It came to light, last Friday, as the pre-Formal acitivities began, that the 180 tickets printed, were titled White Supreemacy. Spook heard this on the radio and also that there had been a report of two people wearing white cloaks and hoods at the local garage to advertise the event on the Saturday. 'A parent' complained of the inappropriateness of this and the Head Master and students of the organisation committte went on the radio to apologise and explain themselves. One of the girls became very upset on the radio and cried. At the end of the broadcast, the presenter was heard to say - presumably meant to be 'off-air' - "That woman wants running out of town" (The woman who had made the complaint).
Apparently the girls - one of whom is the daughter of a very well respected Maori family - had decided on a dress code of white and were going to call the event White Supree. Then they liked the idea of a play on words by adding in the MAC, so were at supreemac and hey-ho, why not stick a y on the end because it makes a word. And this was all there was to it. The one member of staff who ran an eye over it (and the Headmaster was making a very big deal out of the fact that this was all organised by the students), didn't seem to pick up on the inappropriateness. Someone obviously picked up on it enough to don cloak and hood! The girls had worked very hard on the event over a period of 2 months and were tired and emotional at having got it so wrong, hence the tears on the radio. My inside informant told me that the outrage from the radio presenter was that the parent had gone to the media rather than the school. She was also able to tell me that this woman had had a few run-in's with the school AND the family of the Maori girl. And the womans daughter had to go to the Formal, and face all those Yr12's and 13's, whose big night had been tarnished - not by the title on the tickets (which had been hastily re-written to say 'Black Tie'), but by the wicked woman who had reported it.
Even as I write it, I am struggling. That these 17/18yr olds could get to this stage in their education (and these will be the top students), and not know what white supremacy signified, is shocking. The Headmaster was at pains to support his students whilst pointing out that this was done without their knowledge, well, most of the staffs knowledge. Did he miss out on the point that he had failed to educate them well, on some pretty important issues?
This was reported, to some degree, at national level, but somehow managed to stay very low key. I wonder how many people are shifting uncomfortably on their sofas? I imagine, in Britain, this would have hit the 6 O'clock news.
Finn told me that they discussed it in is Whanau (pronounced Fano, and is his group of students from all years that come together every week). The students talked about the Formal and referred to the white supremacy incident. It was then discussed further in his Home Room (his main class room) and Finn understood that it had not been a good thing, that the students hadn't understood what they were saying, and that he, still didn't quite know what it was that was wrong with it. He knows now.