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Desert Vista officials meet about racial slur

Posted at 4:56 AM, Jan 27, 2016
and last updated 2016-01-27 06:56:39-05

Several new developments out of Desert Vista High School in light of the racial slur spelled out on student's shirts.

Community leaders are calling on the civil rights office for the U.S. Department of Education to monitor this case and track any trends of racism in the school district moving forward.

Desert Vista also confirms two of the students have been benched from the school’s nationally ranked soccer team as part of school policy until their punishment is decided.

Civil rights activist Reverend Jarrett Maupin is helping represent one of the teens who made a public apology during a rally outside of the school Monday.

He said they each need to apologize and the community needs to accept that apology or it will only perpetuate the problem.

"You could ignore their sincerity in the apology and create some young white people with chips on their shoulders about blacks for the rest of their lives," he said.

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Maupin believes all the girls should be suspended but not expelled.

"I think they should disciplined, five days, ten days, but expulsion is too extreme."

Maupin said one college has contacted him asking if scholarships should be pulled.

"I didn't agree with any college student having their dream or scholarship pulled out from underneath them."

Maupin also says new tweets that are circulating that seem to be from the students in the photo, gloating and making more racists comments, are from fake accounts.

He said the girls are not using their social media accounts right now.