Antisemitic Graffiti At Reading Memorial High School, What Happened?

READING, MA — Two high school students discovered a swastika drawn on the floor of a language classroom with a sharpie earlier this month and reported it to school officials setting off an internal investigation about the antisemitic graffiti. Last week school officials notified police about the swastika and now say they are taking steps to turn the incident into a teachable moment.

"As an American, I view the ACT of defacing town property with symbols of the Nazi regime to intimidate or shock children or citizens as detestable. The act of defacing schools with such symbols is diametrically opposed to our values of Respect for all, Tolerance for differences, Civility in conduct, recognition of the dignity of human life and support of our Religious diversity," said Chairman of the Board of Selectmen John Arena in a statement Tuesday.

Arena said it was important the incident be made public as a way to educate the community on the seriousness of the incident. "The use of this symbol by an unknown person or persons intent on creating fear or anxiety should likewise be made public to all Reading citizens, to raise awareness of the original incident and provide knowledge of the resolution," he said.

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The rest of the selectmen agreed with him at the meeting and voted to do that.

Police have finished their investigation, he said, but there's no word on suspects.

What happened?

On Thursday, May 4 two girls found what was described as a crudely drawn swastika on the floor in a foreign language class at Reading Memorial High School. They scribbled over the swastika in their own sharpie, took a picture of it and then told their parents about it. The parents then took that to high school and the district administration.

But a teacher said she noticed the graffiti before that and reported it to her supervisor.

The teacher told police she cleaned up her class room on May 1 and didn't notice the graffiti, on Tuesday, May 2 she was out sick, and then on Wednesday when she returned, she noticed the graffiti, took a picture of it that morning and sent it to high school officials, according to a police report. The next day, the two girls noticed the graffiti, scribbled over it and wrote "Not Funny" on top of it, according to the police report. That day, the two girls went home and told their parents about the incident. It wasn't until Friday that one of the girls' mothers emailed the principal and the superintendent of schools about the incident.

That was the first the principal had heard about it, he later told police. Right after receiving the email with the girls' photos, school and district officials met, discussed the incident had their own investigation and then had a custodian remove the offending graffiti, according to the report.

On Monday, May 8 Principal Adam Bakr sent out a statement about the incident, calling it a teachable moment.

"We hope to capitalize on these teachable moments—although painful and uncomfortable—and help bring students to a place of mutual respect regardless of each other’s differences," he said, adding that in the next couple of weeks the school would be taking steps to have a broader conversation on this.

"We will be meeting with student leaders and each of the grade level classes to review and hopefully adopt a student-driven message pledging respect and tolerance from every member of the RMHS Community. Although these messages of bias and hate may unfortunately occur from time to time, RMHS stands united—in spite of our individual differences—ready to accept everyone as a member of our proud community and to stand up for those who may be rejected—even if only by a few," he said in the email.

It was Monday that school officials also alerted the police to the incident. Per the School District's MOU between the schools and the police, the schools are required to report "any incident involving an actual or suspected hate crime" to the police. That includes a violation of civil rights and intent to intimidate someone based on race, color, religion etc., according to state law.

Superintendent of Schools Dr. John Doherty told the School Committee Monday night at their regularly scheduled meeting what happened, noting that the school followed protocol.

According to a police report dated May 9, there were no suspects.

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