“A prank that went sideways,” this is how a black female high school student fessed up herself after being caught doing racist graffiti over the drinking fountains at her high school, authorities said last Friday.
It was on February 11 when racist graffiti was found scribbled on the walls above a water fountain station at C.K. McClatchy High School. In a shared picture by FOX40, it showed the word “colored” above one fountain and “white” over the neighboring fountain.
In a statement made on Thursday, Sacramento City Unified School District 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.”
The newly appointed community liaison Mark Harris said at a press conference that he didn’t think that the girl was motivated by racism or hate.
“It was a prank that went sideways is my characterization of what the young woman said in her confession.”
Harris added:
“I don’t believe those words that were on those water fountains were racist. 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.”
Watch it here: CBS Sacramento/Youtube
Security cameras also caught the student in the act, according to Harris, who described the Jim Crow-styled graffiti as a “prank.”
“It was a prank that went sideways is my characterization of what the young woman said in her confession,” Harris said at a press conference, the Daily Mail reported.
“We don’t know why she did it,” he added, according to the Sacramento Bee. “This is not a situation that is the same as an overt deliberate move to do something that is racist, destructive, negative, etc.”
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 vandalism.
“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 at a press conference outside the school Thursday, according to the Sacramento Bee. He noted video corroborates the confession.
The student is a minor, “and appropriate disciplinary action is being taken by district,” the SCUSD said.
This new incident has made President Betty Williams of the Greater Sacramento NAACP to compare it to the same incident that happened last December
According to William “Why is it when you find something like this we find the Black students quicker than we find the white students. 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.”
Though Harris said he does not consider the graffiti a “hate crime,” local activists disagree.
“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 from the Voice of the Youth told CBS 13.
The Sacramento City Unified School District said they are implementing anti-racism training for staff, are working with law enforcement on the matter, hired a social justice-focused attorney, and are promoting “social-emotional learning,” CBS 13 reported.
“Sac City Unified takes any instance of racial intolerance extremely seriously because such acts harm our students and our entire community,” Superintendent Aguilar said.
Sources: Breitbart, Yahoo News, Fox 40, Daily Mail, CBS 13
It could just be words nothing more or lest. but words.