Racist graffiti in a high school bathroom stall marks the second racist incident in a week at an Anne Arundel County School.
A racial slur written in graffiti was found in a bathroom stall on Friday, Feb. 28, at Chesapeake High School in Pasadena, Maryland.
This follows an incident just a week prior: On Feb. 21, a noose was found at Southern Middle School.
School officials are working to find more information about who’s behind the incidents, as well as why they’re occurring so frequently.
“[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,” said Jacqueline Allsup, president of the NAACP Anne Arundel County Branch.
The 2018 Maryland State Hate Crime report shows Anne Arundel County had the highest number of cases, at 78 reported hate bias incidents that year. Allsup said most of the reports have been in schools.
“These behaviors are learned behavior. So that’s why we need to address this issue with adults and youth,” Allsup said.
She said a forum put on by County Executive Steuart Pittman on Wednesday addressed the increase of these incidents in the school system.
“This type of behavior continues, even here in 2020,” Allsup said. “This is something that is going to take all of us, the community, the school system, the government to continue to address these issues.”
