3 May River High students charged after hotel vandalized with swastikas, racist slurs
Three May River High School students face charges after police say they spray painted Nazi swastikas and several racial slurs on the construction site of a Hardeeville hotel this month.
The Hardeeville Police Department charged the juveniles on Feb. 9 with burglary in the second degree and malicious injury to property, according to a police report. S.C. police do not release the names of juveniles accused of crimes.
On Feb. 1, a Hardeeville police officer arrived with an FBI agent to inspect the Fairfield Inn & Suites construction site on Brooks Willis Drive after receiving a 911 call from the construction site manager.
The manager found someone had spray painted “monkey” on the unfinished elevator shaft of the fourth floor.
Once the officer and FBI agent arrived, they went up to the roof, where they discovered several more slurs in orange spray paint.
The report said those included Nazi swastikas, two uses of the N-word, “white power” and “the South will rise again,” and three profanities aimed at LGBTQ, Spanish-speaking, and Jewish individuals.
The manager told law enforcement that three teenagers had been seen at the nearby Waffle House and then had headed toward the Fairfield Inn & Suites past midnight on Feb. 1.
After reviewing the surveillance footage, the Hardeeville officer noticed one of the teenagers was wearing a May River High School wrestling team logo on his T-shirt.
The police report states the Hardeeville officer contacted the Bluffton Police Department school resource officer stationed at May River High School.
The officer said he would contact school officials. He later confirmed the three subjects in the surveillance video were May River students.
‘Other things come to light’
Beaufort County School District spokeswoman Candace Bruder said Thursday that “the district is unable to comment on an active law enforcement investigation.”
The vandalism occurred one week after a racist Snapchat photo taken by a Bluffton High student caused an uproar on social media.
The photo, captioned “(expletive) monkeys,” was of three Black teammates on the Bluffton basketball team.
In a press conference on Jan. 29 — held to address the Snapchat photo — Beaufort County School District Superintendent Frank Rodriguez announced that he was forming a new task force to address racism in the school district in response to the incident. Eventually the district will hire a permanent head of equity and inclusion.
“As a result of this, other things come to light,” Rodriguez said at the January press conference. “This is why we need an initiative like an equity and inclusion task force to tackle it.”
What now?
Over a week after the incident was reported, the Hardeeville Police Department formally filed the charges against the juveniles.
Hardeeville Police Chief Sam Woodward estimates the total damage to the property is around $4,000. He said the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office is still deciding whether to file additional charges.
The case will appear in family court in Jasper County after that.
This story was originally published February 18, 2021 at 4:25 PM.
