Officials call for understanding after black student confesses to racist graffiti at school
A black female student admitted to scrawling racist graffiti over drinking fountains at her high school, with district authorities saying that it was simply a "prank that went sideways."
The student wrote the words "colored" and "white" over two water fountains at McClatchy High School, referencing segregated drinking fountains that were common during the segregation era in the Jim Crow South. The girl, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, was later caught on surveillance footage and confessed to the act. The district has said she will be disciplined for her actions.
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"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, told reporters at a press conference, adding that he didn't think the girl was motivated by racism or hate. "I don't believe those words that were on those water fountains were racist," Harris declared. "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."
Harris was flanked by local black leaders as he spoke at a press conference, urging the community to have 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. 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 authorities, however, said last week that the child will be disciplined. "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."
Some black leaders said they did not trust the city school district's probe and argued that the race of the offender shouldn't be a factor whether or not it's a hate crime. Speaking to the Daily Mail, Voice of Youth CEO Berry Accius said that he was told by a local council member that the culprit was a black male and not a female, and therefore, he couldn't trust the district's investigation at this point. According to him, officials are attempting to sweep such incidents under the rug due to the negative attention it brings to Sacramento. Accius called on Harris and district authorities to release video footage obscuring the face of the girl to confirm 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," Accius told CBS News 13, calling the act "ignorant." Meanwhile, Harris appeared to defend 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," he said in front of the high school. "There is video corroborating her confession," he added.