“No matter what it says, it hurts all of us,” said MFS Middle School Director Kimberly Clarkson during an interview about the offensive graffiti found the in the boys’ second floor bathroom.
Recently, the news of the vandalism that took place in the boy’s bathroom swept across both the Upper and Middle Schools of MFS. Although the students and teachers were made aware of the incident, the timeline of events remained unclear. Clarkson provided a clear-cut timeline to WordsWorth by saying, “About two weeks ago [prior to the interview], Arnell Palmer, who does facilities and maintenance during the day and is part of the cleaning crew in the evening, came and said, ‘There’s some stuff [on the bathroom stall], I tried to erase some of it, some of it’s scratched in.’”
In the wake of the revelation, gossip and controversy about the incident have spread. There has been much speculation about what was written and drawn in the stall, but exactly what it was will not be revealed to the students. When asked why the nature of the graffiti would not be shared with the student body, Clarkson answered with, “It’s because I think that it would get us bogged down in the details of an incident that, at the end of the day, was offensive.” Clarkson proceeded to state, “What [revealing the nature of the graffiti] would also do, is if you have five groups that might be targeted and only three were mentioned, [then there might be a sense] of ‘Oh, it wasn’t about me.’ I think that it’s important that everyone take this seriously.”
An additional discussion that circulated around the community was centered around what the leadership and administration could do regarding the offensive graffiti. Director Clarkson was adamant that administration would take steps to prevent something like this from happening again, but admitted that it would be difficult given the privacy that every community member is entitled to in the bathroom. Clarkson added that bathroom monitors “don’t fit the culture of our school.”
When asked what the entire MFS community could do to prevent another incident like this from happening, Clarkson responded by commending the efforts the school makes to promote diversity and acceptance. “I think that we already do a lot here… we have assemblies where people come in and share different opinions. We have workshops [and] the advisory program where students are talking about interpersonal relationships and how to get along with other people.” Clarkson also the cited the work done by the Diversity Committees and the PRIDE Clubs of the Upper and Middle School as a great influence on the MFS community.
While Clarkson put an emphasis on addressing the problem on a larger scale within the community, she stressed that it was equally important to help anybody who felt the need to express such a message. Clarkson stated, “I view it from the perspective that there is someone who needs help, and someone who needs help understanding what everyone else in this community values and there is someone who needs help grappling with the hate that they have bubbling up inside of them.”
Lastly, many were wondering whether or not the school would conduct an investigation into the incident, but Clarkson put any rumors of that to bed by saying, “I would say that it [the focus on the incident] is shifting to addressing it within the community.”
