Good Afternoon, Reading Public School Community,

I am saddened and disheartened to share with you that we have had another reported swastika graffiti incident at RMHS.  This incident, which was found by a student on Friday and reported yesterday to the High School Administration, was located in one of the stairwells of the school.  This is unfortunately the sixth incident of hate graffiti since October 12th.  Below is a letter from RMHS Principal Kate Boynton about the incident.

The candlelight vigil on Saturday was a unifying event that defined us as a community.  We need to continue to move forward and denounce this latest incident of hate.  This is not acceptable behavior and cannot be tolerated.  We will continue to work with police to investigate each situation and take action.

Please contact me if you have any questions.

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November 6, 2018

Dear RMHS Families and Staff,

I am writing to the RMHS Community today to inform you of another graffiti incident that has occurred at Reading Memorial High School.  Monday afternoon, a student reported to administration that they found a swastika drawn in a stairwell.  The student indicated they saw the swastika on Friday afternoon, but did not report it to administration on that day.  It is important to note that the student came to administration Monday afternoon as a result of the message communicated at the vigil.  I immediately informed the superintendent and Reading Police and we implemented our incident response protocol.  We are treating this, and the other incidents of hate speech, which have occurred at RMHS this year, with the utmost importance and urgency.

These acts are not who we are or what we stand for as a school and they are not who we are as the greater Reading community as evidenced by the strong turn out at the vigil and the powerful messages of personal strength, respect and acceptance. In a society that has turned increasingly divisive and polarized, it is crucial that we emphasize kindness, empathy, and respect for difference and continually speak out with a unified voice against hate. I am angry and upset by the rash of hateful and threatening graffiti here at RMHS.   We have a moral obligation to expose these hateful acts, as difficult and upsetting as it is, in order to eliminate them.  Ignoring or trying to cover up the incidents is not an option.

As I have mentioned in previous letters, we are taking comprehensive actions as a school community to respond to these incidents of hate speech not only in the moment but also looking long term.

As a school community, we will hold the first school wide “town meeting” style courageous conversation tomorrow during Flex block.  I invite all interested staff and students to attend.  Parents and guardians, please encourage your child to attend. The goals of the conversation will be sharing our stories, breaking down barriers and creating a stronger school community based on mutual respect.

We will be sponsoring whole school book-reads around topics of race, class, religion, culture, and diversity to help extend and ground our conversations in literature and current research.  Our English department has volunteered to take the lead and we hope to partner with local bookstores and the Reading Public Library. We will be offering professional development to all staff to equip them with better skills to have courageous conversations with their students on a more regular basis, and we are committed to an internal audit of our curriculum to find areas where we are missing opportunities to engage students in meaningful conversation and learning about these important topics.  I believe partnering with the parent community is essential to help stem this tide of hateful acts and I would like to offer several evening events for parents and guardians around issues of race, class religion, and diversity.  I will share more about these events as they are planned. Finally, we have created an equity and diversity committee here at RMHS.

We seek to find those responsible for these acts and we must continue to educate our entire community if we hope to prevent these acts from reoccurring. To this end, I urge any student or staff member with information about who might have committed this or any of these heinous acts to come forward and speak to administration.  To the individual(s) responsible, I implore to do the right thing and take responsibility for your actions and come forward.  The time is now to be Upstanders and speak out against hate.

We will continue to work closely with the Reading Police Department, the Superintendent and the Town of Reading to address this and any future issues.  If you have any questions, concerns or information about this incident, please do not hesitate to contact me.   Additionally, see the information below to text an anonymous tip to the Reading Police Department.

You can provide an anonymous tip to the Reading Police Department by texting the keyword READINGPD and a message to 847411 (tip411)

Sincerely,

Kathleen M. Boynton

Principal, RMHS