“Fake Homecoming” pictures surface on Instagram, eliciting backlash from fellow MoCo Students

By Zachary A. Poe

Students across Montgomery County, including the current Student Member of the Board Nick Asante, are catching heat for social media posts over the last few weeks showing students without masks participating in a “fake homecoming” or “FoCo” celebration. 

The pandemic-induced cancellation of homecoming led students of various schools to take things into their own hands, to different degrees. 

One of the more controversial events came from Richard Montgomery High School, where pictures of what seemed to be upwards of 50 people, sans masks, were posted on Instagram and other social medias. Based on group pictures, there didn’t seem to be any attempt at social distancing, and a later video of a massive, maskless party circulated along with the pictures. According to Foco attendees, the event was supposed to operate with time-slots, for each smaller group to get in, take pictures, and get out. It is unclear what groups this did or did not work for, but there seemed to be a general consensus that these plans were abandoned shortly into the night. 

Richard Montgomery alum and former MCR Vice President Emnet Kahsay describes the actions of students that partook in these events as “embarrassing.”

“Most [Richard Montgomery] students claimed that they tried their best to stagger times over 4 hours with other groups, but that seems unlikely,” said Kahsay. “If the groups were spread over 4 hours, the gathering and photos of 30+ seniors (and their parents) at one time would not have been possible.”

“There’s a claim that each group was small and only took pictures with themselves--but that’s also a lie. We discovered photos of several students, from other schools, together without masks on.”

Many students received enormous backlash on Instagram and other social media. Student Member of the Board of Education Nick Asante recently recorded an update on the situation, apologizing for his involvement in one of these events. 

“My apologies for posting [my most recent post], I think in the moment I hadn’t really considered a lot of the consequences for posting that and the influence I had, and even just going to FoCo and taking those pictures.” said Asante during a live update on Monday. “I’m not wearing a mask during those pictures and I’m sorry for that. I know a lot of you guys are disappointed to see that, COVID is not something that I take lightly.” 

Many students, however, are labeling Asante’s apology as disingenuous. 

“He’s just apologizing because he got backlash from the post,” one commenter on Instagram said. “If he genuinely felt sorry about his post, then he would not have restricted comments.” Asante, after receiving backlash on his initial post, limited options for commenting before taking down the post all together. “Honestly it’s disappointing to see someone who is representative of the students displaying this behavior.”

One group from Walter Johnson High School did seem to take heed of CDC guidelines when planning their event. Senior Quinn Harris shared that her group of six friends and their dates tested negative before attending an outdoor backyard gathering, combining mask usage and social distancing when not taking pictures. 

“We really just wanted to try and make the most of such an unfortunate senior year while still taking the necessary precautions and being safe,” said Harris. 

Despite the precautions she took, Harris said she received “vague” complaints by two students about her event. 

Montgomery County has yet to officially comment on the controversy.