GERMANTOWN, Md. — It's just the latest hate filed incident to rock Montgomery County schools in recent weeks: on Wednesday, a swastika was found drawn in pencil in a boy's bathroom at Silver Creek Middle School.
Last month, students from Bethesda's Walt Whitman High School posted photos of themselves wearing blackface.
In March, another swastika was found in the bathroom at Bannockburn Elementary, also in Bethesda.
And in February, some students from Potomac's Winston Churchill High School were found trading "N-word passes."
School Superintendent Jack Smith put out a video on May 13th in response to it all.
“Students and staff who engage in racist acts and target others because of their skin color, gender, religion, sexual identity or culture will face serious consequences,” he said.
Derek Turner, spokesperson for the Montgomery County Board of Education, told WUSA9 the number of hate-filled incidents in schools has actually gone down, from 56 last year to roughly 20 this year. Turner argued we are hearing more about these incidents because of social media.
But one Germantown mom told WUSA9 it was these kinds of incidents that led her to pull her twins from Seneca Creek Elementary School and opt for homeschooling instead.
Holly Harris said her son fell victim to racially-motivated bullying, and she felt the school didn't do enough to address the problem, leading her to lose trust in the system.
"My son was getting bullied, picked on, harassed by white students. He told everyone and no one listened to him," she said.
She said until she sees some "drastic change," she feels she has no other option but to home school her children.
"We should all remember our children turn into adults, so we must nourish our children as much as we can," she said.