Fake hate crime at C.K. McClatchy High School in Sacramento
https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/article258524378.html
Student admits to racist graffiti at Sacramento school: ‘A prank that went sideways’
By Rosalio Ahumada and Nathaniel Levine
February 18, 2022
Investigators have identified a Black student is responsible for racist graffiti found over a water fountain at C.K. McClatchy High School with a message that alluded to segregation, community leaders announced Thursday.
Mark Harris, a community liaison with Sacramento City Unified School District, said the student confessed to writing “colored” on one side of the dual water fountain and “white” on the other side. He said he saw video that showed the student writing the graffiti that corroborates her confession.
“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 told reporters Thursday afternoon during a news conference outside McClatchy High. “There is video corroborating her confession.”
Harris, an attorney with an expertise in social justice and civil rights matters in Sacramento, was appointed last month to help the school district address racism and improve on equity, social justice and civil rights. He said Thursday that it shouldn’t matter whether the student responsible was Black or any other ethnicity.
“It was a prank that went sideways is my characterization of what the young woman said in her confession,” Harris said while standing along side Black community leaders. “It should be a moment for our community to come together and make sure this doesn’t destroy this person’s life.”
A photo of the graffiti was taken last week and circulated on social media. Soon after, the school district announced plans to investigate the graffiti with the Sacramento Police Department.
“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.”
School district announcement
In a news release issued Thursday, district officials said the student will face “appropriate disciplinary action.”
“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 in the news release. “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.”
Betty Williams, president of the Greater Sacramento NAACP, said she’s troubled the investigation at McClatchy High came to a conclusion a week later, while the investigation into racist graffiti at West Campus High School continues to linger months later unsolved.
“Why is it when you find something like this we find the Black students quicker than we find the white students,” 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.”
West Campus High incident
West Campus Principal John McMeekin has said that the racially derogatory vandalism was directed at Assistant Principal Elysse Versher, who told The Sacramento Bee she found a racial slur written five times on a wall near her assigned parking spot on campus on Nov. 6.
In mid-December, the Sacramento Police Department announced that investigators reviewed “several hours” of security camera video and spotted three people who detectives are seeking to “identify and interview” regarding the West Campus High incident.
This week, the district announced racist graffiti was discovered at Abraham Lincoln Elementary School. The school district pledged to “fully investigate” the racist vandalism and is consulting with the Rancho Cordova Police Department on what to do next there.
Williams said she wants more transparency from the district as it conducts these racist incident investigations, and she wants community groups and students to be involved in coming up with solutions.
Berry Accius, founder of the Sacramento community activist group Voice of the Youth, said there should be consequences for writing the graffiti at McClatchy High, calling it an “ignorant” act. But he said the school district should not lose sight of the problems with racism and privilege at McClatchy High.
Accius pointed to the West Campus incident as well as a Kit Carson International Academy teacher who used a racial slur in front of her students. Last month, officials announced the district had fired the seventh-grade teacher for her conduct.
“Because of the racism here in this school, the microaggressions here in this school, makes me feel like I do not belong. This is a problem; not only with the school but the district,” Accius said. “And this is why we’ve been loud.”
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