On election night in Washington State, most people were either celebrating wildly or mildly sulking, only to move on by the next day. A few kids in Buckley, a town near Tacoma, planned something more disturbing.

On November 6th, two days after Barack Obama was elected president, five students at White River High School in Buckley White River students hanged an Obama look-alike doll by the neck in a main hallway.

Since the incident occurred after school hours, relatively few students witnessed it, but news of the mock lynching spread quickly. The five suspects received emergency expulsions but returned to school on Friday to discuss the length of their punishments.

“Students involved have received school discipline,” said White River principal Mike Hagadone. “Our school community is very concerned about this type of incident occurring at WRHS.”

The mock lynching and its coverage in the news have received mixed reactions from the students at White River, but most people say that the prank was racist and went too far.

“A group of five ignorant rednecks thought it’d be funny,” said Eric*, a White River senior. “They got caught, and of course denied the whole thing and tried to pass it off as a ‘political statement.’”

Some feel that the students’ punishment may have been unfair, questioning whether a McCain doll hanging would have sparked quite the same outcry. Most, however, just want to protect their school and community’s reputations.

“Not everyone here is an ignorant racist,” said Eric. “The news and radio are making our school look really bad.”

Principal Hagadone echoes such sentiments.

“I have had many students speak with me about how this incident is not representative of how we want to be portrayed,” said Hagadone.

The future of the five expelled students is unclear. Two of them deny any participation in the incident, and the involvement of law enforcement in the case is a possibility.

Most people in Buckley and at White River just want to get past what happened, but some are not sure exactly when that will be possible.

“There are unfortunately quite a few people here that can’t get over race,” said Eric.

*Name has been changed