Swastikas and ‘hateful’ graffiti found in Cambridge Rindge high school bathrooms
Officials are investigating several incidents of racist and anti-Semitic graffiti found in three bathrooms at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School this week, according to a letter sent to parents on Wednesday.Principal Damon Smith said in the letter that a swastika symbol and “hateful language” were first found in a boys’ bathroom Tuesday afternoon. A swastika and more hateful language were discovered Wednesday morning in a different boys bathroom, and a third swastika symbol was later scrawled in another bathroom.Smith said the school began investigating Wednesday morning after being notified of the incidents and is working with the Cambridge police department, district superintendent’s office and the school’s Office of Safety and Security. The school will take disciplinary and legal action if it can determine who is responsible for the graffiti, he said.“The symbol and language are provocative and upsetting,” Smith wrote. “Its history as a signal for racist, anti-Semitic, and hateful speech and actions is well known. It is intended to make people feel unsafe and unwelcome.”
Cambridge Superintendent Dr. Ken Salim said Rindge and Latin officials has set up spaces for students to speak with counselors. He said the incidents had been reported to the attorney general’s statewide hate crime hotline.
“This type of graffiti is very disturbing,” Salim told Boston.com in an interview Thursday.
In his letter Wednesday, Smith wrote he is “deeply saddened” by the incidents, which he said do not represent the school community.
“The symbol and hateful language violate our core values, and there is no place for them in our community.,” he wrote.“Hate will not be accepted in our school.”
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com