A black student admitted to writing racist graffiti in a Missouri high school bathroom that led to a schoolwide walkout and media attention.
The student wrote anti-black death threats at Parkway Central High School in Chesterfield, which led to students at the high school shouting questions, cursing Principal Tim McCarthy, and complaining about feeling unsafe during a walkout, the St. Louis-Post Dispatch reports.
Superintendent Keith Marty sent a statement to parents and students Tuesday saying they don’t know “why” the student wrote the controversial messages.
“The student responsible is not white,” Marty wrote, “however, this does not diminish the hurt it caused or the negative impact it has had on our entire community…We remain hurt by the actions of the student, as it does not represent the values of our community.”
Despite the hoax, the superintendent said he was proud of students for walking out of classes and said more needs to be done to make students of all races feel safe.
This wasn’t the first time a hate crime hoax occurred like this at the school, the College Fix reports. In 2017, they had a near-identical case, with racist messages, including “White Lives Matter” with the n-word written in the girls’ bathroom.