Racist slur, Nazi symbol found at Fresno’s Edison High. ‘Feeling like an unsafe campus’
Teachers and students at Edison High School are on edge after discovering vandalism in a campus parking lot last week that depicted racial slurs against African Americans and a Nazi symbol.
Fresno police spokesperson Bill Dooley said school officials reported finding the Nazi symbol and racial slur and a heart with two initials on Thursday etched on a post supporting solar panels. The vandalism was done in the same color and with chalk or makeup, Dooley said.
School officials reported the vandalism to the police department on Friday. The incident is under investigation, though “at this point, we have no leads other than the initials inside the heart,” Dooley said in an email.
Educators at Edison High and the district’s teachers union criticized Fresno Unified’s response to the vandalism, which they say is the latest in a string of incidents expressing hate toward Black students and teachers.
A teacher at Edison High said that neither the school nor the district sent out any communications regarding the incident. “It’s feeling like an unsafe campus when these situations are occurring,” said the teacher, who spoke to The Bee anonymously for fear of retaliation from the school district.
There was a similar incident last year when racial slurs were painted on the baseball field at Edison High, the teacher recalled, adding that this incident felt like an escalation of the last one.
Fresno Unified spokesperson Nikki Henry confirmed last year’s incident at Edison High, but said there is no link between the two events.
In a Facebook post, the Fresno Teacher Association said the incident was the “result of a persistent failure to address systemic issues at the site and district levels.” The union said Edison High teachers have expressed repeated concerns about racism on campus, but feel ignored by district administrators.
Manual Bonilla, the union president, said he heard from African American students and educators that some people who used racist slurs at school seemingly faced no consequence for their behaviors.
“There are African American teachers who are hearing the N-word being said around their classrooms, and feeling like nobody is doing anything to hold those people accountable,” said Bonilla. “They are not feeling safe coming to school.”
Henry said when acts of cultural destructiveness occurs, both the schools and the district take part in preventing further harm. The district invests in cultural proficiency, ethnic studies, affinity groups, and social-emotional support. Edison High has an active Black Student Union and developed a multicultural committee following the incident last year, she said.
Edison High’s Black Student Union did not respond to The Bee’s comment request.
Henry said Fresno Unified takes all reports of potential culturally destructive behavior and hate speech seriously. The district’s non-discrimination policies prohibit the use of racist language or profanity against or directed at another person.
“That being said, it’s a much more nuanced conversation about profanity vs. hate speech based on the particular situation,” Henry said. “When someone uses profanity or something like the N-word not against or directed at another person or group of people, that is where you get into a conversation around free speech rights. It is very complex and can only be taken on a case-by-case basis as each situation, and the intent is different.”
This story was originally published January 29, 2025 at 1:40 PM.
