Questions linger six weeks after racist photo at Fresno’s Bullard High. ‘Much work’ remains
After more than a month of lingering questions about a racist photo taken by students at Bullard High School, Fresno Unified officials have released some details explaining how they’re working to fulfill promises made in the wake of the racist images and social media accounts that sparked student walkouts across the city.
“There is much work to continue to be done, and we are committed to doing what it takes to develop and sustain a safe, inclusive culture across Fresno Unified School District,” Superintendent Bob Nelson said in a news release Tuesday.
The picture depicts a student with a white T-shirt on his head in the shape of a Ku Klux Klan hood with another student holding the shirt in that upward position.
And while Fresno Unified said it had taken disciplinary action against the students, which was among the first demands from leaders of Bullard High School’s Black Student Union, students also demanded cultural sensitivity training for the students and pushed for FUSD to improve efforts to recruit and retain Black educators and adopt more anti-racist policies district-wide.
“We don’t want to hear talk,” Rain Carter, a vice president of Edison High School’s BSU, said in May. “We want to see action.”
But, six weeks later, many questions remain about supervision in the weight room when the so-called KKK photo was taken.
In late May, FUSD hired a Sacramento-based law firm to conduct a second investigation in connection with the Bullard incident. FUSD officials have not elaborated on why a private attorney was chosen to lead it.
In an email to The Bee last month, FUSD spokesperson Nikki Henry would only say “concerns” had been raised.
“There have been a number of concerns that have been expressed by staff regarding the incident specifically, as well as other concerns that were expressed from events/actions directly related to the incident,” Henry said in the email.
Henry later confirmed in a separate statement to The Bee’s Education Lab that FUSD had chosen to keep the results of the second probe confidential, despite having the option to waive attorney-client privilege.
Bullard’s BSU asked for “immediate discipline” of the students involved and staff members present,
As the investigation has proceeded, FUSD Trustee Terry Slatic, who represents the Bullard High area, has criticized the district’s handling of the incident and subsequent investigations.
Slatic has also said he believes there’s evidence the photo in question was not racially motivated.
The involved students
The video leading to the screenshot that circulated on social media shows the student playing Ninja Warrior with a broomstick, according to Slatic.
The student wearing the shirt is known for his love of the ninja gaming genre, Slatic said about the student who was using the broomstick as a ninja sword.
“That’s what he does,” Slatic said.
And that’s what he said he was doing when questioned, Slatic said.
When Slatic first spoke with the Ed Lab in early May after being briefed during the investigation, he said the three students said they were playing around when asked what happened. He didn’t specifically discuss the ninja gaming genre.
One of the other students involved in the incident walked behind the student wearing the shirt and held it up, Slatic said.
Slatic also said the three students – the student wearing the shirt, the student holding the shirt up, and the student videoing – are Hispanic. While the photo was offensive, he said he doesn’t believe Hispanic students would be imitating the KKK, an infamous American hate group.
All the students involved have been disciplined, but the district cannot confirm the number of students or what disciplinary action was taken, FUSD said in mid-May and again in a media release about meeting BSU student demands.
Those students will be enrolled in cultural sensitivity training, Nelson said in the release.
Staff member supervision
Dozens of students were in the weight room but unaware of what the three students were doing. For the initial investigation, the district reportedly collected students’ cellphones that had footage from the weight room because other students, though not involved, may have captured what was happening in the background of their videos.
Questions remain about supervision in the weight room when the photo was taken. The district has not said who was supervising the room or whether those staff members knew what the students were doing.
“Disciplinary action has been taken and will be taken to the fullest extent possible for any students or staff found to be involved in perpetuating this culturally destructive behavior,” FUSD’s Henry said in an emailed statement in mid-May.
Bullard football coach Don Arax is “one of many instructors responsible for the weight room,” but he was at an Armenian Men’s Club event during the May 4 incident, according to a defamation claim for damages that referenced the incident.
Slatic said Arax was at a speaking engagement at an Armenian church that day even though the district has not publicly said Arax or any other staff member was present.
In the June 7 defamation claim, Arax specifically named FUSD Trustee Keshia Thomas and said she “implied Bullard High School and specifically certain members of its staff were racist against African American students” during a news conference following the incident.
The defamation claim isn’t about those comments but a May 17 podcast when Thomas said her son, who is now in his 20s, told her Arax called student players the n-word.
Thomas’ son, who played on the Tenaya football team, was heavily recruited for sports and was invited to summer training at Bullard High. The claim uses the fact that he didn’t attend Bullard as evidence the incident didn’t happen.
”Although I am saddened by Coach Arax filing a complaint against me, I certainly welcome the investigation into my comments,” Thomas told the Education Lab. “I feel confident that after a thorough review that his claim will be found to be baseless and without any merit.”
The claim will be referred to the district’s Executive Director of Benefits and Risk Management.
Follow-up investigation
The incident in Bullard’s weight room was just one of several racist, “dehumanizing” images reported by students. Multiple social media accounts and other images were discovered in early May depicting violence against Black people and showing some of the most horrific moments for Black Americans throughout history.
The district hired Sacramento-based Ellis Investigations Law Corporation as an external investigator.
The law firm’s findings are protected by attorney-client privilege and will be kept confidential. In a statement to The Bee’s Ed Lab, Henry acknowledged the district could waive confidentiality and release the investigation’s findings but said the district ruled out making the results public.
The Education Lab filed a public records request for a summary of the initial investigation conducted by district staff, but FUSD responded by saying a request for a summary of that investigation is “vague and uncertain.”
Here’s what FUSD has done since the student walkout
Nelson made two immediate commitments to the demands of the BSU, including: disciplining and providing cultural sensitivity training to the students who participated in the racist behavior and expanding the district’s Race and Social Justice Advisory Board to include a student governing board at each high school.
The advisory board assesses the enforcement of antiracist policies and behaviors across the district, Nelson said.
Nelson described the photo as a “makeshift Ku Klux Klan hood” and acknowledged that the photo is “reflective of a long history of cultural and racial injustice in Fresno.”
“For anyone under the sound of my voice who wants to shrug that off as a joke or kids being kids, I need to be clear,” Nelson said. “Cultural destructiveness, racism, and hate are never a joke.”
The picture caused pain, fear, anger, and hurt across the community, Nelson said.
Slatic said it was “distasteful” for Nelson to make such statements before the investigation ended.
Other than immediate discipline and cultural sensitivity training, student leaders also demanded:
A formal address to all students from their principal on the culturally destructive nature of racism
The expanded enrollment of Ethnic Studies
A student governing board to assess the enforcement of anti-racist policies
According to Nelson:
Bullard’s principal has held staff meetings, addressed students, communicated with with families, met with BUS students and worked to brainstorm and plan ways to impact school culture,
Each school currently has Ethnic Studies with a new classes being created and with the district-wide goal to have it as a graduation requirement before the state’s timeline
The district is collaborating with higher education organizations to meet its goal of hiring staff who better align with the demographics of FUSD student populations. Those include Men of Color in Educational Leadership, Black Women Educators United and a grant through the Wallace Foundation to recruit, develop, promote and retain leaders
District leaders have reviewed board policy to add a Race & Social Action Student Advisory Board at each high school, in which one of those members will be elected to serve on the school board
The district developed a first four-hour response protocol for responding effectively to culturally destructive events.
The Bee’s Julianna Morano and Brianna Vaccari contributed to this story.
The Education Lab is a local journalism initiative that highlights education issues critical to the advancement of the San Joaquin Valley. It is funded by donors. Learn about The Bee’s Education Lab at its website.
This story was originally published June 15, 2022 at 3:19 PM.
