HIGHLAND PARK, Texas – An acclaimed author is exposing Highland Park High School students’ rude behavior at a school speaking event last week.

New York Times bestselling writer Jamie Ford, author of Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, posted a commentary to his blog about his experience last Thursday at the Dallas area high school’s HP LitFest, a program that brings in professional writers to speak with students, WFAA reports.

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Ford wrote:

I’m looking at you, Highland Park High School, and I’m confused.

Yes, you’re in a lovely community, a monoculture of wealth and charm in north Dallas. And congrats on winning the most recent 5A state football championship. That’s almost as impressive—to me anyway—as your 100% graduation rate.

So I was surprised by my strange “welcome” to your school.

Yes, you listened as I took the stage. You laughed at my jokes, and you were kind as I shared personal stories about my own high school career.

You clapped and cheered.

Then as I opened my mouth to speak again—you began clapping.  As I tried to answer questions you began clapping. For twenty minutes, as I tried to wrap up my presentation, you clapped and cheered randomly, a thousand students, trolling me.

I was perplexed as your teachers and your principal—who was just offstage, stood impotent, while you mocked me, a guest to your magnificent school.

Ford explained that he “wasn’t about to be run off the stage by a bunch (of) children” so he proceeded with his presentation. But he was shocked when students continued the antics even after the subject matter turned serious, and Ford drew parallels between the students’ conduct and the school’s infamous alumni Levi Pettit, who was caught on video leading a racist chant against blacks at an Oklahoma fraternity in 2015.

In coming to Highland Park High School, I thought that was an anomaly by an immature alum, a racially insensitive apple in a barrel of healthy fruit.

But now I’m not so sure.

Yes, a handful of your students sought me out to apologize on behalf of their peers. And they were truly wonderful and I enjoyed our time together. But they also said troubling things like “This place is awesome, but half the kids are basically corrupt politicians in the making and future date rapists.” They even used an acronym, the FDRC, the Future Date Rape Club. (Please tell me that’s just a joke.) …

But what convinced me most of the connective tissue between Levi Pettit and your current student body—the elephant in the room, if you will, that attempted to stomp me on your stage for its amusement, was this:

I managed to end my talk on a bittersweet note about the incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans and nationals, about how if we forget that bit of history, we are diminished as a people.

I got my point across and in that brief moment your impoliteness was forgiven and all was well. I thanked you, for not clapping and cheering the Japanese Internment.

Then you clapped and cheered the Japanese Internment.

You couldn’t resist.

That showed me more about you than I wanted to know.

Ford also posted the missive to Facebook, where it was shared thousands of times over the weekend.

School officials issued a prepared statement after the incident, and vowed to do something about it.

“HP LitFest is a wonderful and invaluable annual event that has brought Pulitzer Prize, Tony Award, and National Book Award winners to Highland Park High School. It is a hallmark partnership between our school and community, which allows our students and teachers to interact with dozens of writers and artists from around the world each year,” the statement read.

“Unfortunately, the behavior of some of our students during this year’s keynote presentation was not at all the standard we expect. We value the current and past authors who make this event possible, and we will work with our students to improve as a result of this experience.”