Administrators at a Catholic elementary school in the Maryland suburbs contacted law enforcement last month when a seventh-grade student sent a Snapchat image of his face with “disturbing comments superimposed over it,” according to a letter sent by the school’s principal to families this week. The letter from the school referenced anti-Semitic postings on social media and “hurtful remarks and behavior.”
No charges were filed against the student, who was required to serve out-of-school and in-school suspensions. A subsequent internal investigation by St. Bernadette School in Silver Spring discovered additional instances of racist and offensive behavior by seventh-grade students, Principal Theodore M. Ewanciw wrote to the school.
“While the law enforcement investigation followed its course, the focus of many parents was on the social media incident,” Ewanciw wrote. “However, our in-school investigation also revealed inappropriate behavior including racial, ethnic, and misogynistic remarks and gestures over much of the school year by a small number of seventh grade students.”
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Ewanciw declined an interview request and would not further comment on the nature of the images the student posted on social media or the behavior of the other students. Almost 300 students attend the K-8 school on University Boulevard East. A number of parents of St. Bernadette students declined to comment or did not reply to requests for comment.
In his letter, Ewanciw wrote that he has been meeting with families of students who were involved to review and correct their behavior.
“Faculty, staff, and I met with all seventh graders together to stress that we do not and will not tolerate hateful, hurtful, or inappropriate speech or acts in our school community, and to review the consequences for such behavior as detailed in our handbook,” he wrote.
Ewanciw advised families that the discipline for students involved in the behavior includes education along with detention, suspension and community service. The school announced that the Anti-Defamation League will bring its anti-bias training to St. Bernadette next week and that a Holocaust survivor will visit. Catholic Charities will make a presentation at the school about its work with children of refugees.
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“It is unique to a community centered on Christ that hurtful behavior can be repudiated while reconciling those who were hurt with those who did the hurting into a communion of mutual love and respect,” Ewanciw wrote. “We have such a communion here at Saint Bernadette School, and in order to maintain it we all must strive each day to live with love and respect for each other, as our Catholic faith shows the way.”
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