WASHINGTON — A fifth-grader found a swastika on the wall of a bathroom - along with a curse word - at Bannockburn Elementary School in Bethesda on Tuesday.
The school's principal, Kate Bradley, said the school removed the graffiti but does not know how many students saw it beforehand.
In a letter to parents, Bradley said the drawing did not reflect their values as a school, and that teachers will continue their lessons on "kindness, empathy and respect."
But clinical psychologist Dr. Nicole Cutts said that does not go far enough.
Amanda Ravitz, a mother of a child at the school, agreed because she said this is not the first incident.
“Both of my kids have had people say things to them that was clearly anti-Semitic could not be explained any other way,” she said, “I'm not sure whoever wrote that is thinking Nazi Germany, ‘I'm going to write this and scare people’ - he did scare my son.”
Ravitz believes there is a frightening trend in all schools where kids pick up these behaviors, not fully aware of their history or meaning.
“But it’s dangerous anyways," she said. "People think it’s safe to do that and OK to do that. It’s not OK.”
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“I don't think that it’s too soon or they're too young to address issues on how to be empathetic or self-aware or how to get along with people who may be different than you are,” said Cutts. She offers cultural competence training – even at elementary schools. She said parents need to educate themselves before talking to their kids, despite their own hesitation.
“I sympathize with a parents’ difficulty in not wanting to have this conversations but that's part of the problem but that also speaks to privilege because there are a lot of parents who don't get to choose when it's time to have this conversation because things are happening that are outside their control.”
The school now plans to have students sign out to use the bathroom to prevent the incident from happening again.