This letter is to our community and all the people we have hurt.

We are the students from Hidden Oaks Middle School who used a disgusting and terrible word on
Monday, May 16.

We were wrong and we made a big mistake when we spelled out that derogatory word. We clearly
didn’t understand the full impact of it, and how it hurts so many people. We thought that word is much
like other curse words, but it’s not like other curse words. We now know there’s nothing funny about it.
We were not thinking how this terrible word has hurt so many people for so long.

We hurt people we did not mean to hurt. We embarrassed ourselves, our parents, our school, our
teachers, our friends, and our entire community. We should know better.

We are deeply sorry and ashamed. We take full responsibility for our actions, and we want to apologize
to everyone. We are already facing punishment for our actions, and we know we need to educate
ourselves about racial issues and how words can hurt people.

We will carry this shame forever. We also know that this apology letter won’t make things right and it is
not the end of this issue, instead it must be the beginning for all of us. We have already begun taking
actions to apologize in-person to many people in our community that we hurt. We will work hard to
educate ourselves and our friends. We owe this to our parents, teachers and our entire community.

We are truly sorry.