Couple of hair-raising incidents in the Clayton School District this month of March, as school officials found racist graffiti scrawled on several school properties.
The most recent incident occurred last week, when staff at the Ralph M. Captain Elementary School in the Demun neighborhood found "a threatening message directed at African Americans" scrawled on a wall in one of the boys' restrooms, per an e-mail from Principal Sandy Rosell. Rosell's message to parents said the Clayton Police Department is investigating, but also added, "we have no reason to believe this is anything more than a thoughtless, distasteful act."
Maybe a copycat act...?
On March 5, staff at Clayton High School found "a threat of violence targeting blacks and Jews" on a wall in the men's restroom, per an e-mail to parents from Principal Louise Losos. Students who showed up to school on March 6 went through metal detectors and had their bags and backpacks checked. Clayton police, meanwhile, launched an investigation into the source of the graffiti.
Four days later, on the night of March 9, Clayton High was the target of a bomb threat -- again, written on a wall in a men's bathroom. "Within an hour the bomb dogs were at CHS and within an hour of that they had searched the entire school, clearing it of any threat," Losos wrote on her blog. "Tuesday [March 10] we awoke to a calm, quiet day."
Through the grapevine I hear that race-related threats were also made at Wydown Middle School, but I haven't confirmed that. Waiting to hear back from Clayton's spokesman to find out if they have any leads on who made any of the threats. According to comments left on the high school principal's blog, some parents are frustrated by the threats.
Clayton Schools are on spring break this week.