One day last March, Lawrenceville School Student Body President Maya Peterson donned L.L. Bean boots and a Yale University sweater to pose for an Instagram photo mocking the majority student body, wealthy, white, male, and Republican.
Peterson made the gesture after she and 10 black friends were ridiculed for posing for a senior picture with their fists raised in a Black Power salute. For her own mock photo she added the hashtags #Romney2016 and #peakedinhighschool.
But when the image went viral, it didn’t sit well with the rest of the Lawrenceville student body.
“You’re the student body president, and you’re mocking and blatantly insulting a large group of the school’s male population,” one student commented on the photo.
“Yes, I am making a mockery of the right-wing, confederate-flag hanging, openly misogynistic Lawrentians,” Peterson responded. “If that’s a large portion of the school’s male population, then I think the issue is not with my bringing attention to it in a lighthearted way, but rather why no one has brought attention to it before…”
Even Lawrenceville’s administration stepped in and demanded that Peterson resign from her post as student body president. Lawrenceville, located in New Jersey, is among the country’s most expensive boarding schools and Peterson is an out lesbian who says she’s faced discrimination at the school.
Peterson’s experience shows the racial tensions that exist at some of the elite prep schools and beyond.
The Lawrenceville School, founded in 1810, first admitted black students just 50 years ago. Female students weren’t allowed to enroll until 1987, a change that led 50 students to shout “Better Dead Than Coed” in protest.
