Malibu High Moves Quickly to Counter Latest
Graffiti Incident
• Wording with Names of Seven Black
Students Shakes Up Many Who Say Campus Is Safe
Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies
patrolled Malibu High School last Friday, and will be an
increased presence on the campus in coming weeks, after a
message possibly threatening the school’s seven black
male students was found scrawled on a bathroom tile.
The message bore the date April 14,
the word “boom,” and the name of the seven
students. Principal Mark Kelly said the date may refer to
the anniversary of the day in 1865 when President Abraham
Lincoln was assassinated, may have some other meaning, or
may have no meaning at all.
“How could we not take this
seriously?” Kelly said.
“It’s disturbing,” said
Mario Johnson, a black junior. “I feel safe at this
school, and it’s surprising that something like this
would come up here.”
Kelly, his staff and school district
officials did not take the graffiti lightly, and rushed to take
steps. Black students were pulled out of class and informed of
the incident by the principal the morning after the nasty
message was found, and allowed to return if they felt like it.
Two girls started crying quietly in the
hallway when they heard the news, Kelly said, but pulled
themselves together and went back to class.
“I called all of their parents and
left my home number over the weekend,” Kelly said.
“Monday morning, we pulled all the kids from class and
showed them pictures of the tagging.
“They were concerned, but they all
believe they are safe and continued to come to
school.”
Peggy Harris, the district’s director
of curriculum and an African-American, met with the
students as well, Kelly said.
Ray Humphrey, the school’s football
coach who is black, said he could not understand the motive for
the apparent act of a student. “I’ve talked to the
guys, and they say there wasn’t some fight, or some
spark, to this.
“They think it came out of nowhere,
and they say they have felt safe and accepted at this
school.”
Past graffiti incidents in Malibu have
involved tagging by a supposed clique of surfers called
“Malibu Locals Only,” but sheriff’s deputies
have said they viewed “MLO” as more of a coastal
territorial claim by wave-hogging adolescents than anything
racial.
Just 32 African American youths out of 1270
students attend grades 6-12 at the school, and only seven
of those pupils are male students of high school age. All seven
were named on the tile.
Kelly told the entire student body of the
incident last week, and sent a letter to parents as well. On
Friday, a previously scheduled breakfast for California
Scholastic Federation honor students gave the principal a
chance to talk with student leaders.
“This week, we had to face a
challenge in which a group was kind of isolated,” Kelly
told the honor students in the auditorium. “We need you
to be the voice of reason, we need you to take what
you’ve learned in classes to influence your community in
a positive way.”
Kelly said the scrawl was found in a
boys’ bathroom by a student, who reported it to a
security officer. After it was photographed, it was removed.
“We Googled the date, and all we can
find is the anniversary of the assassination of Lincoln. We
don’t know if there’s any connection between [the
graffiti] and the assassination of Lincoln,” he said.
Sheriff’s deputies patrolled the
campus last Friday, which was March 14. “We don’t
know, maybe the kid got the month wrong.”
“In today’s current context, we
have to take this seriously and treat it as something
real,” Kelly said Friday.
“Malibu High School is a safe school,
and kids tell us they feel safe here, even these particular
kids after this incident,” Kelly said.
Johnson said he was puzzled by the threat,
as he thought relations at the school were good. “Maybe
this was either a joke, or this kid is mad at somebody,”
he said.
“A lot of the other students are very
angry about this, and have been very supportive for us. I like
this school and I feel safe here,” he said. “This
wasn’t expected, it was a real surprise.”
