A white male student on a field trip at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture spat on a Black museum-goer.
Principal Dina Marks, who was with the students during the incident, told BuzzFeed News the student leaned over a balcony and spat on the Black person. The white student, who has not been named, attends Shelton Intermediate School in Connecticut.
“It was an act of stupidity, disinterest & immaturity, completely inappropriate,” the school’s principal wrote on Twitter. “But I believe, not racially motivated against that person.”
That tweet, cited by BuzzFeed News, appears to have been removed from the social media website.
Marks also reportedly wrote on Twitter Friday night, “Our kids are not bad people. We are all pretty sad tonight.”
Immediately following the incident, the class was thrown out of the museum. Superintendent Chris Clouet said the entire group of 100 students and about a dozen chaperones were kicked out, and the student was sent home.
Clouet wrote a Facebook post about the incident.
“This kind of action is not a reflection of who our students are, or who we are as a community,” he wrote. “Shelton schools and the Shelton community can do better! We must!”
In an interview, Clouet said there will be disciplinary action for the student, but he did not offer specifics, citing privacy laws.
About 35% of students in the Shelton Public Schools district are children of color.
In a separate but similar incident in Connecticut, Blavity reported in March a Connecticut school secretary resigned after being seen on video yelling racist slurs and spitting on Black people at a grocery store. The secretary was an employee with Hamden Public School.
