School Newsletter Includes Racist Cartoon
In what seems to have been a careless mistake, a substitute secretary sent a racist parody of a Peanuts cartoon, showing a Black figurine with a noose around his neck, to parents and other subscribers.
By Danielle Wright
December 22, 2011 / 5:35 PM
<p>An apparently careless mistake by an office staffer has put a northern California middle school in the national spotlight.</p>
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<p>When compiling Sequoia Middle School's newsletter that normally includes school announcements, current events and occasional cartoons, a substitute secretary apparently mistook a racist cartoon for a harmless comic. The newsletter, then sent to Sequoia parents and other subscribers, included a <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.gocomics.com/peanuts" target="_blank"><i>Peanuts</i> cartoon</a> showing a Black figurine with a <a href="http://www.bet.com/news/national/2011/06/13/black-soldier-claims-death-threats-and-a-noose-hung-in-room.html" target="_blank">noose around</a> his neck. Under the character read the words ?White Pride.?</p>
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<p>"We will be making procedural and security changes to prevent such travesties from happening again," Principal Connie Cirimeli wrote in a letter to the school community Sunday. </p>
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<p>The substitute secretary took the image as an innocuous cartoon, but the image was actually a photograph taken by school officials three years ago after someone defaced the campus mural with <a href="http://www.bet.com/news/national/2011/12/21/black-doll-hung-by-noose-at-nyc-parks-department-hq.html" target="_blank">racist</a> graffiti. The photo was among evidence collected for the police investigation.</p>
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<p>"Friday, a substitute secretary was working on the newsletter during a busy afternoon and embedded the image without examining it closely enough to recognize its content," Cirimeli wrote. "It is office protocol that any public distribution of information be proofread by a second employee and given to the office manager for final approval before publishing.?</p>
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<p>In an effort to prevent future problems, the school will now store digital crime evidence on secured computers and all publications will be approved by administrators.</p>
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<p><i>(Photo: Sacramento Bee/MCT/Landov)</i></p>