Activists Seek Legislative Action After Mexican Families Removed From Pool

Activists were in Raleigh on Saturday demanding legislative action following what they deemed a racial incident at a swimming pool in western North Carolina. 

The incident last Monday involved several Mexican families who say they were escorted from a swimming pool in Hendersonville for playing music in Spanish.

Bella Perez can be seen in a now-viral TikTok video recounting the event to an officer.

She says that after several white women complained about the music, an employee at the Flex Fitness and Recreation Center Pool tried to disconnect their speakers. Perez says that when she and her friends sought an explanation, police were called to remove them from the pool.

The News and Observer reports that members of the families were in Raleigh on Saturday with Poder NC, a Latinx advocacy group. They gathered outside the State Capitol Building to draw attention to the incident.

The group is demanding that the Henderson County Sheriff's Office make public the incident report, release 911 tapes, and create a policy that avoids putting children in situations where they must act as interpreters for law enforcement. 

The paper says that multiple attempts to reach Flex Fitness for comment were unsuccessful.