Beaufort Co. schools’ response to racist Snapchat is ‘a political move,’ Black officials say
A Snapchat photo taken by a white Bluffton High School student with the words “f------ monkeys” over a picture of three Black students spread on social media earlier this year, causing outrage.
On Jan. 29, Beaufort County School District Superintendent Frank Rodriguez called a press conference condemning the Snapchat and announcing a new task force in response.
“If we continue to do nothing and not address the root of the issue, nothing will change,” Rodriguez said.
More than seven months later, three Black Beaufort County school board members expressed their frustration with Rodriguez’s group, criticizing its lack of transparency and diversity of opinion and its failure to address the original incident, they said in interviews.
“It’s a political move. He’s projecting what appears to be an initiative,” said Melvin Campbell, who represents the north end of Hilton Head Island.
“It ain’t going nowhere,” he said.
Don’t want to ‘rehash it’
The task force, which is now known as the Superintendent Student Advisory Council on Diversity and Inclusion, was pitched as a group of students advising Rodriguez on diversity.
The district asked principals from seven schools to pick students to be involved, each sending about three students who are in 10th and 11th grades. The makeup includes 41 percent Black and 23 percent Hispanic students.
At a school board meeting last month, Lakinsha Swinton, a district administrator running the group, presented the results of its first event from June 11.
Students defined what diversity meant to them, talked about their experiences, took photos with Rodriguez and received certificates of appreciation.
Throughout the course of her presentation, Swinton painted a rosy picture of the meeting but was short on details.
Asked if the racist incident that spawned the group was discussed, Swinton said no.
“The initial conversation ... was because of that incident but not because we want to rehash it or continually revisit it,” Swinton said in a recent interview. “I think it’s an opportunity for us to grow and become better.”
In the school board meeting, members Earl Campbell and Will Smith, who are both Black, charged that the group didn’t seem very diverse — in opinion.
“They appear to be very much the same kind of students,” said Earl Campbell, whose district represents parts of northern Beaufort County. “I’m looking for the other students. The students who could have been responsible for some of the things that generated this in the first place.”
Smith, who represents Lady’s Island and St. Helena Island, said principals would not choose students who would be critical of the status quo and suggested guidance counselors or behavioral management specialists be asked to help pick different kinds of students.
The district will not be able to understand the problem if they won’t talk to students who will tell them about it, the members said.
“Once you can stomach it, that (racism) does exist, you can start working to change that,” Smith said, in an interview.
Rodriguez and Swinton rejected the claim that advisory council was “a one-note group of students.” They said the group challenged them on diversity; it just wasn’t all included in the Aug. 18 presentation.
Asked to explain further what the group discussed, Rodriguez and Swinton declined, saying they did not want to abuse the students’ trust.
Snapchat and hotel vandalism
The Snapchat incident is often cited along with another racist incident involving Bluffton students that occurred a week later.
Three days after Rodriguez’s press conference, students from May River High School spray painted Nazi swastikas and several racial slurs on the construction site of an unfinished Hardeeville hotel.
They included “monkey” written on an unfinished elevator shaft. On the roof, “white power” and two uses of the N-word were written in orange spray paint.
The Hardeeville Police Department charged the students after watching the surveillance footage and discovering one of the perpetrators had a May River High School wrestling team logo on his T-shirt.
They faced charges of burglary in the second degree and malicious injury to property.
To resolve their charges, the three May River Students were permitted into pre-trial intervention with the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office because they hadn’t been in trouble before, according to Hardeeville Police Chief Sam Woodward.
They each were required to write a three-page essay about hate crimes, pay $1,083 in restitution, and do 50 hours of community service.
Rodriguez declined to comment on the disciplinary actions taken in the case of the vandalism and the racist Snapchat.
No criminal charges were filed by police in the case of the Snapchat.
The Bluffton Police Department did the initial investigation on Jan. 26, but the investigation was then turned over to the Bluffton High School administration, according to Lt. Christian Gonzalez with the department.
Melvin Campbell said he was told the student responsible for the Snapchat was suspended for a day or two. School board members are not briefed on disciplinary matters involving students, and others interviewed said they did not know what the action was.
Island Packet reporter Rachel Jones contributed to this story.
