By Justin Hsieh & Karen Phan
Two posters made by Marina High School students for a football game on Friday evening shocked students and parents in the Segerstrom High School community, who found the posters to be racially offensive.
One poster that read “Segerstrom [sic] favorite color is brown” was spotted and posted on Facebook by a parent on Friday night. Santa Ana Unified School District (SAUSD) Board of Education Valeria Amezcua shared the post, and told Marina High School “shame on you” and said she would be reaching out to other district officials. Celebrity MHS alumnus Vanessa Bryant posted a screenshot of Amezcua’s post on her Instagram story on Friday, adding her own comment.
“[It] Saddens me to say that these posters most definitely do NOT reflect the same Marina High School I loved and graduated from,” Bryant wrote. “These posters are absolutely disgusting and unacceptable to say the least. [I am] Hoping this post brings attention to what the students at Segerstrom High School read as they showed up to play a game tonight.”
On Saturday, Amezcua and Huntington Beach Union High School District (HBUHSD) Board President Duane Dishno released a joint statement regarding the poster incident at the football game.
“HBUHSD and Marina High School accept responsibility for the incident and apologize to the students, families and staff of Segerstrom High School,” the statement said. “SAUSD and HBUHSD believe strongly in the principles of diversity and inclusion. Every student deserves to feel valued and respected. What happened Friday night was offensive and contrary to both districts’ guiding principles – and for that, HBUHSD apologizes.”
According to the statement, the principals from Marina and Segerstrom will be working together to “strengthen relationships” and provide diversity training for Marina’s Associated Student Body. HBUHSD has also reached out to the Orange County Human Relations Commission and the California Interscholastic Federation to assist in working with Marina’s students to address the incident.
The statement said SAUSD will be working with Segerstrom to “employ Restorative Practices” including staff meetings with affected students and communication with parents and families.
“Both districts want to assure students, parents, staff and community that both HBUHSD and SAUSD reject racism in any form in our schools and community and that it is never acceptable,” the statement ends.
The poster is at least the second instance of racially offensive incidents at Marina High School this year.
As part of an April Fools’ Day joke, two Marina students created a hand-written petition asking for permission from students of color to use a racial slur. An offended student posted photos of the petition addressed to “Brown People” on Facebook and contacted the Marina’s principal, Dishno told the Daily Pilot. Dishno added that the two students who created the petition were disciplined.
The OC Register has noted several other incidents in “a concerning trend in Orange County.”
Last month, an investigation confirmed that students from San Clemente High School (SCHS) used “racial epithets” and derogatory language toward Lincoln High School students and parents at a football game at San Clemente. Following the incident, students from both schools participated in a workshop on bias and hate speech held by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).
In August, videos surfaced of members of the Pacifica High School water polo team performing Nazi salutes at the side of a pool and at an off-campus athletics banquet. Other videos appeared to show Pacifica students marching with German and Confederate flags. In response, the Garden Grove Unified School District reopened their investigation into the videos, which were originally recorded in 2018 and first came to their attention in March.
In March, students from the Newport-Mesa Unified School District made national and international headlines after images of them performing Nazi salutes around swastikas made of red plastic cups were posted to social media.
“We only know about this one because it was caught on video and shared,” regional ADL director Rabbi Peter Levi told the Guardian in response to the Pacifica videos. “This is just the tip of the iceberg.”
