Racist material incident rocks Elk Grove Unified School District

By Robert J. Hansen | OBSERVER Staff Writer

African American leaders are expressing their ongoing frustration with the Elk Grove Unified School District after a teacher distributed racist material to students last month for a Black History Month assignment – play money that read “One n-word Buck” and other racial slurs directed towards Black people.

The district said in a statement that it is investigating the incident and that it does not condone the use of such materials nor does it represent or reflect the district’ s core values. 

“Upon completion of the investigation, the district will take appropriate corrective and restorative action,” the statement said.  The district has placed the Katherine Albiani Middle School teacher on administrative leave.

This is just the latest example, however, illustrating the difficulty Blacks are having with the district. In 2021, two district employees were fired after driving a company vehicle that had a Confederate flag hanging in the window. In 2018, EGUSD topped the list as one of the worst districts in the entire state for Black student suspensions.

Lorreen Pryor of the Black Youth Leadership Project has been working with students and families from the school district for seven years and said that district officials have been resistant to addressing the racism in their schools.

Pryor said if district officials were serious about addressing racism they would provide the support that Black students need rather than perform symbolic gestures. In 2021, she said her organization provided solutions – which were not implemented – to mitigate these types of issues with Black students.

“They’re not really serious about helping Black students,” she told The OBSERVER.

Pryor said her organization received 12 complaints from students and parents related to discrimination and unequal disciplinary practices at EGUSD schools last school year. 

Elk Grove Unified Superintendent Christopher Hoffman said in a letter that the district recognizes that racism and bigotry exists in its schools and that it remains committed to being part of the solution.

“The district holds steadfast to all four of our strategic goals, including providing targeted support and interventions to students who identify as Black/African American and looks to continue our partnership with parents and community members to help further this work,” Hoffman wrote. 

Hoffman, who has been the EGUSD Superintendent for 11 years, released a similar statement following the Confederate flag incident.

“We cannot let this act of hate stop our progress. Instead, we will shift greater attention to our diversity, equity and inclusion efforts to continue building trust and empathy among the students we educate, families and community members we partner with and staff we employ,” Hoffman wrote in 2021.

Pryor said Hoffman’s words ring hollow after seeing things like this play out over and over under his leadership.

“All of this happened under his watch,” Pryor said.

Following the Black student suspension report, the district vowed to change. That also hasn’t happened as Black suspension rates have remained higher than their peers from 2022 through 2024 according to data from the California Department of Education.

Sacramento NAACP President Tiajuana Barnes said she was shocked when she heard about the incident and that the picture spoke volumes to the lack of cultural awareness the teacher placed on leave had. 

“This person must not have been informed or educated on how such a thing could be impactful to children,” Barnes said. 

Barnes said it is a failing of the district to not have its teachers trained on what materials could be offensive and inappropriate for students to see. Barnes, who has a background in education, has offered to assist the district in going over teachers’ lesson plans to ensure they will not be offensive to students.

“These kinds of materials are not only hurtful to Black students but (also) tell other students that this stuff is OK,” Barnes said.

She added that the NAACP’s complaint portal has had an increase in school complaints as well and encourages people to reach out by email.

In a statement, the NAACP said that distributing racist, offensive material to students is not only harmful to the targeted population, but it also indoctrinates other communities to believe that it is acceptable to disrespect Black people. 

“Black students should be able to attend school, obtain a quality education, and develop other skills needed to advance in life. However, the people entrusted with their education too often reopen wounds that are generations deep,” the statement reads. 

The NAACP also demanded that EGUSD officials issue a formal apology to the entire Black community, acknowledging the harm caused by the incident and outlining the corrective steps that will be taken to prevent a similar incident from happening again.

Support for this Sacramento OBSERVER article was provided to Word In Black (WIB) by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. WIB is a collaborative of 10 Black-owned media that includes print and digital partners.