Regional school officials in Southwick are investigating after racist language was found written on a bathroom wall, the superintendent said Friday.
The incident came less than two days after six students were criminally charged in connection with holding a mock slave auction on Snapchat that targeted two classmates at Southwick Regional School.
Jennifer Willard, superintendent of the Southwick-Tolland-Granville Regional School District, told families about the latest incident in an email sent Friday night. But the message included few details, including which school building the language was found in, or when it was discovered.
She said that the regional school district “takes any acts of hate, racism, or discrimination in any form seriously.” She said police have been notified about the incident.
“The district will NOT tolerate this type of hate and we all MUST work together in order to affect change in our communities,” Willard said in the message. “The district will remain steadfast in our commitment to providing a safe school environment for all staff and students.”
But the seriousness of the latest incident shows that “nothing has changed” and that school officials haven’t adequately responded to racist acts committed by students, according to Allyson Lopez, whose daughter was among the children harassed in the Snapchat incident.
“They continue to write these derogatory words and remarks that are offending students of color,” Lopez said in an interview Sunday.
On Thursday, Hampden District Attorney Anthony D. Gulluni announced six eighth-grade students at Southwick Regional School are facing criminal charges for participating in the Snapchat group chat that included a mock slave auction for two fellow students.
Students shared “hateful, racist online chat that included heinous language, threats, and a mock slave auction” in the Feb. 8 online conversation, Gulluni said.
In that incident, Bishop Talbert W. Swan II, president of the Greater Springfield NAACP, said that participants “bid on” their classmates. Swan, in a letter to Willard, said those students who joined the chat “acted maliciously with the intent to cause pain, embarrassment, fear, and trepidation.”
Lopez sent a letter to Gulluni to commend him for prosecuting students involved in the chat. In that message, she said Gulluni’s prosecution of the case “provides a glimmer of hope amidst the darkness of this traumatic incident.”
The Southwick Regional School enrolls 614 students in grades 7 through 12, and is nearly 89 percent white, according to state data.
Lopez has demanded school officials provide more details about the latest incident, and what steps the regional school district is taking in response, she said.
She also criticized the message because it did not mention the earlier racist conduct that targeted her daughter.
“This email has no weight, no substance to it,” Lopez said. “We need some serious conversation, some language that will hit home” for both students and parents.
“She should be doing something. And obviously she’s not doing enough for these students to think it’s okay,” Lopez said of Willard. “This is learned behavior [by students], and parents should also be held accountable for their kids’ behavior at this point.”
Willard did not immediately respond to questions from the Globe on Sunday.
Lopez said her daughter is not doing well since news of the latest incident was released. Lopez shared the contents of Willard’s message with her daughter Friday, she said.
“I have to say when the district attorney made his announcement last week, she was able to breathe a little bit,” Lopez said Sunday. “It’s another story today.
“They have let her down multiple times,” Lopez said of school leaders. “And now they have let her down again.”
Emily Sweeney and John R. Ellement of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
John Hilliard can be reached at john.hilliard@globe.com or on Signal at john_hilliard.70. Follow him on Bluesky at iamjohnhilliard.bsky.social.