Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda was vandalized with a racial slur and the drawing of a noose, the school’s principal wrote in a letter to the community on Saturday.
Principal Robert Dodd wrote that the n-word and a drawing of a noose was spray painted on the school’s campus Friday night.
Dodd wrote that when he learned of the graffiti Saturday morning, school staff covered it up and contacted Montgomery County police. The incident, Dodd wrote, is being investigated.
“I want to emphasize as strongly as possible that this racist and destructive behavior will not be tolerated in the Walt Whitman High School Community. If it is discovered that our students were involved, they will received serious consequences and may face additional charges from Montgomery County police,” he wrote.
Officer Rick Goodale, a county police spokesman, wrote in an email Saturday, that a resident reported the graffiti around 9:30 a.m. Goodale wrote that an officer found the graffiti on a utility shed near portable classrooms and in a nearby crosswalk. Goodale wrote that police are investigating the incident.
The graffiti that was discovered on Saturday comes about three months after the n-word was found spray-painted at Whitman in early March. Additionally, two students in April 2019 were accused of posting a picture on social media that showed them posing in blackface, captioned with the n-word.
“I feel both outrage and deep grief that acts of racism and hate continue to occur at Walt Whitman,” Dodd wrote on Saturday.
Dan Schere can be reached at daniel.schere@bethesdsamagazine.com
