A crowd of students from two Goleta Valley high schools walked out of their campuses Tuesday to demand that the Santa Barbara Unified School District take accountability after a racist social media post caused outrage.
Groups of students from San Marcos and Dos Pueblos high schools walked out ahead of a Tuesday evening district board meeting.
Some students plan to speak about how school officials addressed the recent viral post in which a group of San Marcos High School female students artificially darkened their skin to recreate an image of four Black children in matching school uniforms.
The students reportedly took the photo while in their History of Africans in America class, according to Abel Gonzalez, who teaches the course and also advises the Black Student Union. He said he was not on campus when it happened.
On Tuesday, the San Marcos walkout drew about 100 students before they gathered at Shalhoob’s in the Magnolia Shopping Center, according to Nahsia Darcus, president of the Black Student Union.
The walkout was organized last week in collaboration with Dos Pueblos High School students and Healing Justice Santa Barbara, a nonprofit that supports the local Black and African American community.
Some Dos Pueblos students also walked out and gathered at Girsh Park.
“We are really tired of the district and our school not addressing the real matters that happened, and they just kept on saying incident, which really sounds like an accident that happened,” Darcus said.
Santa Barbara Unified School District spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the walkout.
History of Africans in America teacher Gonzalez also demanded transparent communication from school officials. He wished he was informed about the post when school leaders learned about it so he could have “prepared himself.”
Darcus added that the walk-out is meant to demonstrate that the students “are not over it,” and to express disappointment in the response from district and school leaders.
San Marcos and district officials previously told Noozhawk that the school’s staff were “working with the students about the impact of their actions,” and with students affected by the social media post.
The students’ consequences were not shared with Noozhawk, but Santa Barbara Unified School District Superintendent Hilda Maldonado said it would be handled through “an established student discipline process.”
But Darcus said the consequences are not enough. She proposed a three-day suspension, saying other students in the Black Student Union initially wanted expulsion.
“It’s not fair that someone who gets caught smoking gets suspended for three days, but if someone’s racist, which affects an entire community, does not get it,” she said.
She claimed the students in the social media video were given independent study for two weeks due to safety concerns, and had to complete a “module” and write an essay.
Leticia Forney Resch, co-executive director of Healing Justice Santa Barbara and Darcus’ mother, claimed the nonprofit, which partners with the Santa Barbara Unified School District, was not immediately notified and only found out through the students.
The organization also took to social media to express its disappointment.
“We are now in our 4th year of partnership with the district. However, many of the recommendations, relationships and accountability Black students and community have put forward have been delayed in favor of more “discussion” and surveys while Black students continue to suffer,” a post said.
High school students and Healing Justice SB staff plan to speak at Santa Barbara Unified School District board meeting Tuesday at 6 p.m. at 720 Santa Barbara St.
