VANCOUVER, Wash. — Emotions ran high at the Vancouver Public School Board meeting this week as students and staff from Fort Vancouver High School described, often through tears, the racist behavior they've had to endure from fellow students.
"Racism does happen at Fort Vancouver High School and our admin doesn't know how to handle it," testified Relleesha Lewis, a sophomore and president of the Black Student Union at the school.
Navon Morgan, a contracted school worker, testified that he's seen "first-hand multiple instances of intentional anti-Black hate speech directed towards students that I work to uplift."
"Things like this should not be acceptable," testified another student, Fatou Bojang, through tears.
Students at Fort Vancouver High School described the culture of blatant racism as pervasive, saying it's the norm to hear racial slurs in the hallways and racist language in social media posts from students.
Bojang told KGW that she's heard racial slurs in her classroom and has seen social media posts from her fellow students that refer to Black students as the n-word and monkeys.
"I've seen on her TikTok posts that she wasn't sincere about the apology," Bojang said. "She kept going in the comments saying it wasn't that serious, the joke wasn't about you, the n-word this, n-word that."
In another incident, a student put up posters for a club she had started to support the mental health of Black teens. The poster had a photo of her and was defaced with insults and the n-word.
Parent Andru Morgan said that was the breaking point when he decided to go to the administration.
"This day and age, if that word was being put on there as a joke, whatever the intention was, that's ridiculous," Morgan said. "Something had to be done."
A spokesperson for Fort Vancouver High School said the superintendent has personally met with the students who spoke at the school board. The district said it's committed to making sure all students feel welcome and safe.
"If we partner and we have more people looking at these difficult issues, we're going to get to a place and we're going to ensure we have an environment where students feel safe, valued and heard," said Fort Vancouver Assistant Principal Luis Castro Quintanilla.
Students told KGW that they hope next school year will be different.
"For other people to see us cry, it's just like, do you not see how hard it hurts?" Bojang said.