SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Sacramento City Unified School District announced Thursday that a student was responsible for a racist language written above C.K. McClatchy High School water fountains.
The incident dates back to Friday. A photo showed a two wall-mounted water fountains with the word "white" written above one designed as a bottle filler and the word "colored" written above the standard fountain.
On Thursday, SCUSD identified the person responsible as a student. They said that "appropriate disciplinary action" is being taken by the district.
"It was a prank that went sideways is my characterization of what that young woman said in her confession," SCUSD liaison for civil rights issues Mark Harris said.
A spokesperson said that the district cannot release what the specific discipline would be.
“Sac City Unified takes any instance of racial intolerance extremely seriously because such acts harm our students and our entire community,” Sacramento City Unified School District Superintendent Jorge Aguilar said in a statement. “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.”
Racism at an Elementary School
It was one of two incidents that the school district contended with in the last week. On Tuesday, SCUSD launched an investigation into racist messages written on the wall of Abraham Lincoln Elementary School. The district said those slurs included the N-word, swastikas and "KKK."
"The fact that it's happening at an elementary school with our babies is really disturbing," said Dr. Kristee Haggins, president of Safe Black Space. "It feels tragic — it feels really sad, disappointing, upsetting and enraging that any of this is happening."
Dr. Haggins says the recent acts of racism paired with constant microaggressions is traumatizing for many Black students.
"It can be really overwhelming, particularly, when people misunderstand what is actually being communicated and think that it's about them," Higgins told ABC10.
"It's about this ideology, this belief that Black people at some level, are not the same or not human, are not equal, are not smart — those lies and that narrative that's been told."
Mary Muturi, a parent of a second-grade student at Abraham Lincoln Elementary School, says whoever is responsible for painting the hateful words on the school's walls needs to be punished and held accountable for their actions.
"In my eyes, they should be put behind bars and (face) penalties — hefty, hefty penalties," Muturi said.
Other Incidents
In November 2021, West Campus High School assistant principal Dr. Elysse Versher says she found the N-word spray-painted five times on a wall near her assigned parking spot on campus. Dr. Versher says she also experienced racism and harassment on social media in response to enforcing the school's dress code.
In another case, SCUSD recently suspended, with plans to terminate, a middle school Spanish teacher who used the N-word in a class with 7th graders during a lecture. The incident happed at Kit Carson International Academy in June 2021.
In January, SCUSD brought in Mark Harris, an attorney and long-time Sacramento community member with extensive expertise in social justice and civil rights matters, to advise the district on addressing racist incidents that are currently under investigation, and to support the district’s efforts to address racism and improve equity and inclusion for all.
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