A black female high school student has admitted to scrawling racist graffiti over the drinking fountains at her high school, district authorities said Friday, telling them that it was a 'prank that went sideways.'
The vandal inked the words 'colored' and 'white' over two water fountains at McClatchy High School in what appeared to be a reference to segregated drinking fountains found during the era of segregation in the Jim Crow South.
The unnamed girl was caught on video and confessed to the act. The school district has said she will still be disciplined.
'It was a prank that went sideways is my characterization of what the young woman said in her confession,' Mark Harris, a community liaison for the Sacramento Unified School District, said at a press conference.
He said that he didn't think that the girl was motivated by racism or hate.
'I don't believe those words that were on those water fountains were racist,' Harris said. 'I do not believe they were hate crime or hate speech. Part of it quite honestly is because the admitted perpetrator is a young African American woman.'
A black female student has confessed to scrawling racist graffiti over water fountains at McClatchy High School, according to Sacramento School District officials. Local activists say they doubt the investigation because other older racist graffiti investigations have not concluded
Mark Harris, a community liaison with the school district, said that the racist graffiti was just a 'prank gone sideways'
Harris, who stood beside local black leaders at a press conference, specializes in civil rights issues and was hired by the district to help address racism and racial equity issues in local schools.
He asked the community for its patience and understanding when it comes to the fallout for the vandalism.
'It should be a moment for our community to come together and make sure this doesn't destroy this person's life,' he told the Sacramento Bee.
'We don't know why she did it,' said Harris. 'This is not a situation that is the same as an overt deliberate move to do something that is racist, destructive, negative, etc.'
Nevertheless, school district authorities said last week that they will discipline the child.
'Sac City Unified takes any instance of racial intolerance extremely seriously because such acts harm our students and our entire community,' Superintendent Jorge Aguilar said.
'While identification of the person involved in this incident has been addressed, we also will remain focused on supporting the healing of students and staff who have been impacted by this troubling act of vandalism.'
Local parents are disturbed by the multiple incidents of racism in the Sacramento schools
A black girl was caught on video in the act of scrawling racist graffiti above two school drinking fountains
The McClatchy High School administrators said that the girl would face appropriate discipline for her act of vandalism
Black leaders said that they distrusted the city school district's investigation and said that the race of the offender shouldn't be a factor in determining whether or not it's a hate crime.
Berry Accius, who heads Voice of Youth, told DailyMail.com that he was told by a local council member that the culprit was a black male - not a female - and that he distrusts the district's investigation at this point.
He said that the district is trying to sweep the incidents under the rug because of the negative attention that it has brought to Sacramento.
He called on Harris and the district authorities to release the video footage that obscures the face of the girl but proves once and for all that it is in fact a black student.
'I disagree with it not being a hate crime because at the end of the day we understand when you have ''colored'' on one water faucet and ''white'' on another kind of faucet what that means – whether it's 1950 or 2022,' Berry Accius, who heads the group Voice of Youth, told CBS News 13.
He called the act 'ignorant.'
Youth activist Berry Accius said that he was told that the culprit was a black male. He believes that the district is trying to underplay the problem of racism in the Sacramento schools
Berry Accius, head of Voice of Youth, says that it doesn't matter if the culprit is black, it should still be considered a hate crime. He said he doubts the conclusion of the district's investigation
Harris defended the findings.
'I've been practicing law for 40 years, people typically don't confess to things they didn't do, unless they're under duress or coercion. And nobody has claimed that; not her, not her family,' Harris said in front of the high school.
'There is video corroborating her confession.'
There have been multiple incidents of racist and hate-filled graffiti in Sacramento schools lately.
Last week, the N-word, a swastika and 'KKK' were written on a wall at Abraham Lincoln Elementary School in Sacramento.
Racist graffiti was written about an assistant principal at West Campus High School last November five times on a wall near her parking spot.
Sacramento Police are investigating the incident and have identified three suspects.
Sacramento Police released this surveillance video of men that they spoke to in connection with racist vandalism that targeted a West Campus High School vice principal
Sacramento Police have not said that the men in the video surveillance were responsible for the racist graffiti that targeted a West Campus High School vice principal
In January, a seventh-grade teacher was fired after she used a racial slur in front of her students at Kit Carson International Academy.
'Why is it when you find something like this we find the Black students quicker than we find the white students,' Greater Sacramento NAACP president Betty Williams said.
'I want you to put that same energy into West Campus. I want you to put that same energy into every school district that's dealing with these issues. It's a problem. We have racism that's rooted in this school district.'
Post a Comment