After swastikas, anti-Semitic symbols, profanities, and the words “Trump 2016” appeared in late November on a beloved rock — usually a showcase for positive messages from students in Harvard — local educators called an assembly Monday to discuss diversity and fostering respect.
The next day, however, school officials got a reminder of how tough it is to combat racism and make schools welcoming for all. On Tuesday, swastikas were found drawn on the wall of a boys’ bathroom at The Bromfield School and a student there used the n-word with another student.
The school has about 710 middle- and high-school students, 83 percent of whom are white, according to state enrollment figures.
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“Clearly, there was a lot of work yet to do,” Linda G. Dwight, superintendent of Harvard Public Schools, said Friday in a telephone interview.
School officials are trying to find out who is responsible for the bathroom graffiti and have disciplined the student who used the slur, Dwight said.
Police are looking for who was behind the hateful messages scrawled on the rock, which is on Bromfield’s campus and allowed to be painted, said Chief Edward D. Denmark.
The rock is cared for by high school seniors, who traditionally paint it several times, residents said. In the past, it has been used to honor a student who died and celebrate school spirit.
“It’s a symbol for them,” said Robert Curran, who walks his dog by the rock most days and posted a photograph of the graffiti to Nextdoor Harvard, an online social network. “I think the town took it personally.”
It is unclear whether students were involved in the graffiti, Dwight said.
Surveillance video from the area didn’t reveal any clues, but investigators have arranged for forensic testing of paint cans found at the scene, Denmark said. But even if officers solve the mystery, he said he is unsure whether the case could be prosecuted as a hate crime.
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“It’s even hard to call it vandalism because of the fact that they’re allowed to paint the rock,” he said. “It’s hard to charge someone just because you don’t like the message.”
Investigators suspect a person or group in their preteens or early teens is behind the graffiti, rather than an established hate organization, because some of the markings were juvenile and lacked a cohesive message, Denmark said.
But authorities are taking it very seriously, he said.
“We need to find out who’s involved and engage with those people to understand why they feel it’s appropriate,” he said.
SusanMary Redinger, chairwoman of the Harvard School Committee, said she believes the graffiti is likely the work of young people who have been emboldened by rhetoric used during the presidential campaign that disparaged a wide range of minority groups.
“There are a lot of statements that the president-elect made against different ethnic and racial groups,” she said. “I think they’re mirroring statements made on a very big stage here in the United States.”
The school system of more than 1,100 students in the Worcester County town is not the only one confronting racist incidents. On Wednesday, a swatiska and the word “Trump” were found written on a blackboard at the William H. Lincoln School in Brookline. Officials in Newton and Wellesley have also investigated complaints. In September, a federal investigation found a climate of racial discrimination and harassment at Boston Latin School, an elite exam school.
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Earlier in the school year, Dwight said four Bromfield students were disciplined for using racial slurs and stereotypes and another student was punished for harassment.
“There’s no profile for where something’s going to happen,” said Robert Trestan, who directs the New England branch of the Anti-Defamation League. “We’re seeing stuff happen in big and small places.”
He said Harvard officials’ response to the rock graffiti is “a model for other communities” because they promptly addressed the incident with students and showed them photographs of the messages.
On Saturday, a group of students finished repainting the rock, drawing the words “Class of 2017” with a peace sign, said Emma Franzeim, a Bromfield graduate who helped students organize the painting.
At Monday’s school assembly, students read aloud from the Anti-Defamation League’s “Resolution of Respect” and heard a teacher read Langston Hughes’s poem “I Dream a World,” which imagines a society free of racism, according to a letter from Dwight.
Student groups also collected signatures for the “Resolution of Respect,” which is a pledge to combat prejudice, and distributed safety pins, which people have worn since the election of Donald J. Trump to show support for minorities, immigrants, women, and other vulnerable groups.
Friday, students wore the school colors, blue and white, for spirit day, according to Dwight.
She said school officials are also reaching out of the families of students of color and varying religious and social backgrounds to seek their input.
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“We probably have to do more to reach out to families whose voices are less represented,” Dwight said. “We’re not a real diverse community and we have to work on how our differences help us contribute to each other.”
A candlelight vigil against bigotry is planned for Sunday evening on the Town Common. The Harvard Unitarian Universalist Church is organizing the gathering, which is scheduled to start at 5 p.m.
“There’s been a lot of dismay in Harvard,” said the Rev. J. Mark Worth, the church’s interim minister. “Everyone has to be welcome in our nation and in our community and people’s rights to live unharassed in freedom and dignity have to be protected and supported.”
Laura Crimaldi can be reached at laura.crimaldi@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @lauracrimaldi.