Racist Graffiti Found In Pasadena High School Bathroom

PASADENA, MD — One week after a middle school student created a noose during science class when students were supposed to be creating pulley systems, a racial slur was found written across a bathroom stall at Chesapeake High School.

“I’m running out of words to describe the disgust I feel, frankly,” Anne Arundel County Public Schools spokesman Bob Mosier told the Capital Gazette. "It’s just sickening that our students and our staff and our schools and our communities get painted with a label like this because of the actions of a few."

Students participated in a forum on bias and hate crimes with Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman last Wednesday night, according to a letter sent by principal John Yore, who described the Friday incident as "very disturbing." After a student reported the graffiti to school officials, they "immediately alerted our school resource officer, closed the bathroom and removed the graffiti."

“[The students behind these incidents] want to be a part of the in-crowd but they don’t realize the impact it has on that person that they are making this biased comment against,” Jacqueline Allsup, president of the NAACP Anne Arundel County Branch, told WTOP.

Yore informed parents in his letter that the school will take action against the student who left the graffiti and urged parents to take action by talking to their children. He also asked parents to speak with their students about the incident.

"I want to convey to you my firm belief that while this incident is reprehensible, condemnable and most likely illegal, it does not come close to reflecting our students or our school community as a whole. I have seen, heard, and interacted with our staff, our students, and their families enough since my arrival over the summer to know that our community is appalled by such hate-filled, repugnant language," Yore wrote.

Anne Arundel County Public Schools recorded 244 reports of bias-motivated behavior in the 2018-2019 school year, almost three times more than the prior year.

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