A best-selling author says he was disrupted by students at an assembly at Highland Park High School. Jamie Ford was the keynote speaker at the school district's LitFest last week.
Ford describes his experience at Highland Park High as a school visit gone sideways.
On his personal website, the New York Times bestselling author wrote about what happened as he spoke to hundreds of freshmen and sophomores.
Ford says things started off fine – but everything devolved as he answered questions. He says students clapped and cheered at random times.
Ford says teachers and the principal didn’t do anything to stop them.
Ford, who is Chinese-American, says students continued clapping and cheering, even after he discussed the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.
The District Responds
Highland Park superintendent Tom Trigg has apologized to Ford. He and school board president Joe Taylor sent a statement to parents and staff Sunday night that has also been posted on the school district website.
They said the district has a lot to learn from the incident and also want to publicly apologize for the unacceptable behavior of students.
Ford says several students did seek him out after the assembly to say they were sorry about what happened.
