Parents are calling for change at a North Carolina school after students held a “mock slave auction” in which Black middle-schoolers were “sold” by their white classmates.

According to ABC News, the mock auction happened in the presence of staff and faculty at J.S. Waters School, a K-8 school near Raleigh. The Chatham Organizing For Racial Equity coalition also says the incident was captured on video.

The Chatham County school board first became aware of the situation after parents’ outcry on social media. One mother, Ashley Palmer, said she was alerted about the disturbing student roleplay by her Black son, Jeremiah.

“Our son experienced a slave auction by his classmates and when he opened up we were made aware that this type of stuff seems to be the norm so much that he didn’t think it was worth sharing,” she wrote on Facebook.

“His friend ‘went for $350’ and another student was the Slavemaster because he ‘knew how to handle them,'” she continued. “We even have a video of students harmonizing the N word. Since when were children so blatantly racist? Why is this culture acceptable?”

Another parent, Christy Wagner, said to the school board, “The reality is these acts of racism are not only happening here in Chatham County but across North Carolina and across the country. More should be done around addressing racism in schools because no parent should have to stand here after hearing their son was sold in a slave trade at school.”

In response, Chatham County Schools Superintendent Anthony Jackson proposed new policy changes, a “full top-to-bottom review of our student code of conduct” and a plan to increase accountability for racist incidents in schools. The school board unanimously approved the plan on Monday (March 14).

“Actions such as these, they just do not reflect who we are as a school system,” Jackson said. “And I say, unapologetically, will not be tolerated in the school system.”

However, parents at the school say several students who participated in the mock auction were only punished with a one-day suspension.

“These students were emboldened to not only commit brazen and overt acts of racism but to retaliate further and continue their aggression after serving a perfunctory one-day suspension,” Chatham Organizing For Racial Equity said. The coalition is calling for more accountability for teachers and staff, including making participating in racist incidents a fireable offense.