Two swastikas were drawn in a bathroom at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School last week, prompting a police and school district investigation.
In an email message to families on Friday, B-CC’s acting principal, Shelton Mooney, said the swastikas were found drawn in a first-floor bathroom on Thursday and pictures of the drawings were posted on social media.
The school’s building services crew removed the swastikas immediately, Mooney wrote.
The school district and police have launched an investigation to determine who made the swastikas, which are a Nazi symbol of anti-Semitism and white supremacy.
The Student Code of Conduct outlines disciplinary responses to harassment, ranging from community service to expulsion.
B-CC, on East West Highway in Bethesda, has an enrollment of about 2,100 students.
“A part of our vision at B-CC is to create a sense of belonging for every student in the building and drawings like those found yesterday work to prevent us from realizing this vision,” Mooney wrote. “I will be working with the administrative team and school leadership team to develop a course forward that will [give] opportunities for our school community to reflect on our diversity, repair any harm done, and grow together.”
The FBI’s 2018 Hate Crimes report released last week said Jews were the target of 57.8 percent of all religious bias crimes in the U.S. last year.
Several reports of bias incidents pertaining to race or religion were reported in Montgomery County schools last year, including a swastika painted on an outside wall of Richard Montgomery High School and mock passes distributed at Winston Churchill High School that offered the recipient permission to use a racial slur.
A swastika was discovered drawn on a Churchill desk a few days before the mock passes were distributed.
At Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, two students were disciplined for posting a photo to social media of themselves wearing blackface.
Caitlynn Peetz can be reached at caitlynn.peetz@bethesdda-remix.newspackstaging.com