Teen Boys Install Ku Klux Klan Image on Mission Ridge Ski Resort Computer Opening Day
"That isn't who we are," and there will be consequences, said Executive Director Josh Jorgensen
After the earliest opening day in years, Josh Jorgensen, the executive director of Mission Ridge Ski & Board Resort, felt that the first day of the 2022-23 season was an unmitigated success – until he got home. That’s when the texts, emails, and calls started.
Someone had replaced the background image on one of the computers in the cafeteria of the lodge with a photo featuring members of the Ku Klux Klan in full regalia. After closing time, the image was posted online and spread like wildfire in the Wenatchee Valley. It was shared on Snapchat, Reddit and Facebook, and almost immediately people began demanding answers.
“We were pretty appalled trying to figure out what happened here. Was it photoshopped?” Jorgensen said. “So Tony, our marketing director, drove up to the mountain because we found out about it after we were closed and gone.”
The “Tony” Jorgensen is referring to is Tony Hickok, and when he arrived he found that the photo was still set as the wallpaper image on that computer but covered by a window. So Hickok disconnected the machine and took it to Mission Ridge’s IT office. The next morning Jorgensen and his team started to check surveillance footage from the lodge to see who put the image up.
“We were able to look at the footage and see that it wasn’t any of our staff,” he said. “There were three teenage boys that were messing around with the computer.”
The boys, all about 15, were originally focused on the computer early in the morning, but a manager came along and shooed them away. They came back later in the day, though, and replaced the background image around 3:30 pm, close to closing time.
“The image was probably up on the screen while the public was here for about 30 minutes,” he said. “But that was enough time for another customer to come along and see it and probably get pretty upset by it.”
It was also upsetting to Jorgensen and his staff, who learned about it after they had left the lodge. That evening I reached out to Jorgensen to give him the heads up. He responded promptly, saying he was looking into it and that’s not what Mission Ridge is about.
“This situation has been brought to our attention and we find it deeply disturbing. This image in no way represents what Mission Ridge believes or our core values,” he wrote. “We are taking this matter very seriously and are investigating it to determine who is responsible for this despicable behavior.”
By the next day, Jorgensen and his staff had identified the culprits and spoken to the Chelan County Sheriff’s Office. Jorgensen said there are criminal charges that could be applied, but they’re probably not going to press charges against the boys. However, he said they will “no trespassed,” aka persona non grata, from Mission Ridge for some time.
“They won’t be welcome here for a period of time, probably a pretty significant period of time,” he said. “Like multiple years.”
He said there were a couple of other kids “loosely hanging around as well,” and it seemed to him that they were just trying to get a rise out of people. He spoke with two of the three families, and they were very apologetic and embarrassed.
One of the boys told him that he loves Mission Ridge, and it didn’t even cross his mind that it could hurt them.
He said there will be changes to how they approach cybersecurity, and computers that are so accessible to the public and unattended for significant periods of time will most likely be locked down in the future.
Jorgensen said the community was “super quick” to make sure they knew what was going on and thanked folks who brought the issue to their attention. Mission Ridge is about “stoke” and enjoying the outdoors in a positive, safe and healthy way, he said. That image and what it represents is exactly the opposite of what Mission Ridge is about.
“Anything like this we want to know about it immediately and be able to deal with it,” he said. “I’m just thankful we were able to find out what happened with such clarity and so quickly.”
My Two Cents
During our conversation, I asked Jorgensen if he knew what the term “edgelord” means. He said he didn’t, so I explained it in a nutshell, and he agreed that could be the type of mentality we’re dealing with here.
It’s no great secret that 15-year-old boys are prone to making poor decisions. It’s a time in a male’s life not typically associated with forethought and rationality. But that’s also not an excuse for this type of behavior.
However, this type of behavior doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Another thing teenage boys aren’t commonly associated with is originality. This is merely one data point in a broader theme of offensive images and memes used by attention-hungry trolls to “get a rise” out of others, as Jorgensen said.
It’s bad enough that the three boys and their hangers-on didn’t have the presence of mind or moral compass to realize their mistake before they made it – or how their decision could negatively impact one of their favorite local businesses. But at a deeper level, it illustrates a disturbing level of comfort with what hate groups like the KKK stand for and represent.
Now you might be able to chalk some of the boys’ actions up to ignorance, but that excuse only goes so far. The KKK is the most prominent hate group in American history, and there’s clearly a reason they picked that image.
And while this topic is pretty much the last issue I’d like to be thinking about and writing on the night before Thanksgiving, perhaps bringing this to light will prompt folks to talk to the young men in their lives over the holidays.
Being boorish and intentionally offensive is no substitute for having a personality or something of value to contribute to society.
But perhaps some of the blame also rests on us. Perhaps these boys behaved in such a cavalierly boorish manner because they see rich and powerful male role models – titans of business, entertainment and politics – acting the same way nearly every day and receiving little-to-no backlash. Maybe they’re simply aping the behavior that most of us say we detest but, in the end, accept from those with power, money and influence.
If you’d like to learn more about how to combat hate speech and have meaningful, productive conversations about this issue with children in your life, this article from the Leadership Conference Education Fund is a good place to start.
I especially appreciated your thoughts at the end of your article. Well said!
Another great resource for learning how to interrupt hate and bias incidents without escalation is RightToBe (formerly Hollaback). It's free and well thought out.
https://righttobe.org/our-training/?link_id=8&can_id=de49f1213c0e94feadb8c7e44cae8163&source=email-we-stand-in-solidarity-with-those-who-are-frightened-that-their-reproductive-rights-could-be-limited&email_referrer=email_1724486&email_subject=always-remember-you-have-the-right-to-be-you