College recruiter fired after lining up Oklahoma City students by skin color, hair texture

OKLAHOMA CITY — A recruiter from an Oklahoma college was fired after high school students in Oklahoma City said he made them line up by their skin color and hair texture.

The recruiter, from Oklahoma Christian University, addressed 11th-graders during an assembly Monday at Harding Charter Preparatory High School in Oklahoma City, KFOR reported.

“He barely talked about the school itself,” Rio Brown, a student, told the television station.

Instead, he proposed an exercise to the students in the gym.

At Harding Charter Preparatory High School, college recruiters stop by all the time, but this gym assembly was different.

“He was like, ‘Let’s play a little game,’” another student, Korey Todd, told KFOR. "He said, ‘OK, everyone now line up from darkest to lightest skin complexion.’”

"He said, ‘OK, who is going to line up the fastest?” Brown told the television station.

Students said the recruiter told them to reshuffle their line.

"He told us, ‘Nappiest hair in the back and straighter hair in the front,’” Brown told KFOR. “Teachers left,” Brown said. “They were crying and they were offended. Their faces just look disgusted. I know they had a talk with him after, like, ‘That’s not OK.’”

According to officials at the university, the recruiter was fired after the incident.

“The OC admissions counselor who visited Harding Charter Preparatory Academy on Monday is no longer an Oklahoma Christian University employee,” the university said in a statement. "C admissions leadership did not approve the inappropriate activity in advance and has communicated closely with Harding administration since the visit. Admissions staff are scheduled to visit the academy Monday to apologize to Harding students and staff on behalf of the University.”

Cox Media Group