Lunenburg High Schools has forfeited its remaining games after racist graffiti was sprayed on the home of a freshman football player.
But Superintendent of Schools Loxi Jo Calmes said this week that the graffiti is not the first time a student was targeted because of race.
“The educators and coaches of Lunenburg value diversity, and we care deeply about all of our students,” she said, reading from a statement, reported Nashoba Publishing. “We have no tolerance for racism in any form, and we do everything we can to eliminate it from our schools and our community.”
The racist graffiti was aimed at 13-year-old student Isaac Philipps, but the way it was worded showed it was aimed at all black players on the team.
Andrea Brazier, Isaac’s mother, said that he has been harassed at school because he’s black, including the tire to his bicycle being slashed.
“From day one, the principal, the vice principal and the superintendent keep telling us they’ve never had this issue,” Brazier said. “They admitted to us today they have been dealing with emails back and forth with those two games. The superintendent came to our house last night to let us know that we should be looking outside of football, and it may not be a player,” she said.
“They’ve known two weeks today … that one of our players was accused of using the word in the game,” she added. “I wasn’t thrilled with that. It seems like they’re trying to get us away from the issue, saying it’s (not) a football issue.”
Mass. Gov. Deval Patrick said that he spoke with Calmes and Isaac’s family, reported the Sentinel and Enterprise.
“It’s disgusting. And I don’t believe it’s who the people of Lunenburg are,” Patrick said.
