A fake, racist notice posted to the website for Rio Americano High School advertised a false “no black people policy,” and now the FBI and the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department are investigating, reports said Monday.
The notice displayed what it called a “district-wide high school no black people policy,” which said black people were prohibited from school premises as of Monday, CBS Sacramento reported.
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The note also said that members of the white nationalist Ku Klux Klan (KKK) would patrol the school, Capital Public Radio added.
“Whoever made this poster, they made it to make Rio look bad, because the words are too vulgar and too bold for them to just sit there and come up with this idea as if it was a joke,” Rio Americano student Jalen Taylor said.
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The image reportedly circulated on Snapchat and Facebook on Thursday, The Sacramento Bee reported.
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San Juan Unified School District officials told the newspaper that the notice was fake, and was never actually displayed on Rio Americano’s website.
“After our initial review, we have found no evidence that a website with this message ever existed on the Rio Americano High School website,” district community relations director Trent Allen said, according to the Bee.
The notice has nevertheless caused harm, community activist Jamilia Land said in a statement reported by CBS.
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“In the past few years, Rio Americano was identified as one of three schools on a list for a possible mass shooting, and this recent racist behaviour only adds additional fear and concern of the black student population being targeted for acts of violence,” she said.
Rio Americano students are no strangers to racism there either, according to one parent.
Levias Taylor said her son had previously been called the N-word at school.
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“They need to hear their students. They need to hear their stories,” she told Capital Public Radio.
“Everybody is not comfortable talking about these issues. But they’re real. It’s not something we can keep sweeping under the rug.”
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