Students and advocates filled a Santa Barbara Unified School District board meeting on Tuesday night, carrying signs, to speak out against the treatment of Black students and the district’s response to racist incidents. Public outrage centered on a recent viral social media post depicting a group of San Marcos High School female students who had artificially darkened their skin to imitate an image of four Black children in matching school uniforms.
Earlier that same day, students at both San Marcos and Dos Pueblos high schools organized a walkout. These walkouts aimed to raise awareness about the incident and encourage more community members to attend the school board meeting and express their concerns.
Nahsia Darcus, president of the Black Student Union, stated that the school district managed the blackface incident “horribly” and demanded more stringent consequences for racist acts. Darcus conveyed that the district had made Black students aware they cannot be trusted and called for actual, strict consequences that prevent those who commit racist deeds from believing nothing will happen. The district, when the incident first became public, stated it would address the matter through an “established student discipline process,” noting that specific consequences would not be disclosed due to student privacy concerns.
Leticia Forney Resch, co-executive director of Healing Justice Santa Barbara, asserted that the district failed Black students. She highlighted that it took two weeks for the principal to notify parents about the incident, preventing local organizations from offering support resources to students. Forney Resch also referenced a past incident at Dos Pueblos High School where swastikas were drawn on campus, noting that the school had emailed parents and held an assembly in response.
Charlotte A. Gullap-Moore, a Santa Barbara City College trustee, addressed the board about the harmful historical context of blackface. Gullap-Moore explained that blackface was created to stereotype Black people as lazy, foolish, and childlike, forming the basis for Jim Crow laws that stripped Black Americans of their civil rights. She claimed that the students who posted the image did so to spread hate, arguing it was not merely a prank or a lapse of judgment.
Abel Gonzalez, a teacher of History of Africans in America, shared that the photograph of San Marcos students in blackface was reportedly taken in his classroom on a day he was not present. He learned of the incident only when administrators visited his class to speak with students. Speaking at the board meeting, Gonzalez stated it was his first time discussing the incident with the board and district leadership. He expressed offense, noting years of recurring racist incidents, and suggested the district's continued inaction reflected a lack of care for him and his community. Gonzalez also told a local news outlet that repairing the classroom environment after the incident has been an “ongoing process,” as he endeavors to continue educating youth about Black culture and history, maintaining open dialogue.
Maile Schoonover, communications manager for The Fund for Santa Barbara, characterized the blackface incident as the latest in a series of racist occurrences within the district. She cited previous reports including racial slurs directed at Black students and teachers, a substitute teacher using a racial slur in class, and instances of “monkey noises” directed at students in school hallways. Schoonover emphasized that these are not isolated incidents but represent a disturbing pattern of anti-Black racism that the district is responsible for interrupting.
York Shingle, president of the Santa Barbara Teachers Union, attributed the lack of change in the district to Superintendent Hilda Maldonado. Shingle claimed that Maldonado would likely respond with her typical approach of meeting with student leaders, after which no actual changes would occur. He suggested this pattern would continue until a new leader strong enough to enact changes is in place. Before public comments at the Tuesday school board meeting, Superintendent Maldonado condemned the post, acknowledging that it signifies a deeper issue of racism and exclusion. She expressed a desire for high schools and all schools to be places where students feel they belong and where individuals are willing to act when someone is being harmed, asserting that such a community is built through daily choices, not single assemblies, lessons, or statements. The school board is scheduled to discuss this issue further at its next meeting on October 27.