Leaders of the California NAACP are condemning a Santa Barbara high school after several teenage girls appeared in a TikTok video wearing blackface, accusing the district of mishandling its response to the racist post.
School officials said they imposed unspecified consequences on the four San Marcos High School students. But Connie Alexander, president of the NAACP Santa Barbara branch, said Friday that the district’s response was inadequate.
“SBUSD has struggled to establish protocols to respond to racial incidents and execute them with humanity. Principals need clear guidance; parents and students need accessible information about district investigations and potential disciplinary actions for racist incidents,” Alexander wrote in an opinion piece for the Santa Barbara Independent.
“SBUSD’s response should be transparent, and it should administer discipline equitably. Far too many Black students have been suspended for less severe infractions,” Alexander added.
The students have not been publicly identified. In the image, they appear to be imitating an AI-generated picture of four young Black boys in different poses—a trend that has since circulated widely on TikTok.
The post carries the caption “Meet the gc🥷🥷🥷🥷🥷🥷🥷….” The ninja emoji is known to be used as a reference to the N-word.
San Marcos High School Principal Dare Holdren said the students “portrayed blackface” in the post and confirmed that the school had “instituted consequences” for all four girls, according to a message sent to parents Friday.
“The racial stereotype was reported to the administration through our Safe to Speak Up system two weeks ago, and our administrative team responded promptly,” Holdren wrote.
“As the image has continued to circulate among students and has affected members of our school community, we believe it is important to address it with our broader community as well.”
The school contacted the students’ families and is “working to educate the students about the impact of their actions,” Holdren wrote. “Racial stereotypes are harmful and have no place in our schools.”
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“Regardless of intent, students need to understand the impact their words, images, and actions can have on others.”
Alexander said she expects changes in district leadership following what she described as the “mishandling of the response by school and district officials” to the TikTok post.
“The same leaders and systems keep failing. It is time for new leadership and systemic change,” she wrote.
The incident is the latest in a series of racist controversies to affect the school district.
The Santa Barbara Independent reported that a substitute teacher at San Marcos High School read the N-word aloud during a reading of “Of Mice and Men” last year, despite being instructed not to do so. The substitute was subsequently removed from campus.
At a June 9 meeting, community members said racial problems continued to affect the school campus.
“Black students do not feel safe here, and I have personally lost friends who moved away because of it,” one student said at the meeting.
“There is only one way to view this racist incident — not two; it is simply wrong,” Alexander wrote.
