Harvard police are continuing to investigate the spray painting of graffiti on the rock in front of the Bromfield School, characterized by School Superintendent Linda Dwight as “threatening symbols and hate speech.” The incident was first reported on Nextdoor Harvard the morning after Thanksgiving, where it drew a strong response from residents, students, and parents. The story was quickly picked up by the Boston Globe, WBZ-TV, Fox25, and the Associated Press. As of Wednesday morning this week, the police and school officials had no suspects.
Residents and students were quick to respond. On Saturday a dozen Bromfield students assembled at the rock at 1 p.m. to cover it with a fresh coat of white acrylic paint, using supplies paid for by a rapidly organized online GoFundMe campaign. Approximately 50 parents, teachers, and school officials also came to the field on the overcast, chilly afternoon to show their support. Members of the senior class plan to return this coming weekend to paint the rock with a fresh design of their own.
Next to the Bromfield School a group of students jumps in front of the rock after covering it with a fresh coat of white acrylic paint. From left: Kira Houston, Phoebe Clark, Maggie Gill, Caroline Hentz, Colin Cleary, Eva Xue, Meredith Nordell, Clara Alexander, Charlotte Durham, Zach Shipman, Dylan Winchell, and Ben Brown. (Photo by Lisa Aciukewicz)
This week, on Monday, as the post-Thanksgiving school week got underway, Bromfield students were called to an all-school assembly in Cronin Auditorium led by Dwight and Bromfield Principal Scott Hoffman, who urged them to reject the words and symbols on the rock and reaffirm their commitment to making Bromfield an inclusive community. Students were shown photos of the graffiti, invited to read aloud the Anti-Defamation League’s “Pledge of Respect,” and presented with guidelines for responding to hate speech (See “
Resolution of respect”). Student reaction to the event was mixed (See “The Press asks…”).
The graffiti, which was discovered by a resident Friday morning, included multiple swastikas, with one covering the Star of David; the words “Trump,” “black sugar,” and “cuck,” the latter a term used by the white nationalist “alt-right” movement; an orange cross that Dwight said could be interpreted as burning; profanity; and drawings of genitalia. Witnesses also reported seeing a curse directed at former Principal Jim O’Shea. Photographs showed that the graffiti was spray-painted over the word “Coexist” spelled out with religious symbols, which Bromfield seniors had painted on the rock following the presidential election. By Monday morning, photographs were the only remaining evidence of the defacement. Others, which had been shown in the school assembly had been partially obscured to remove profanity.
Traditionally, the rock has been a place for students to display messages to the student body and wider community, which Dwight described as “always very respectful.”
“That rock is pretty focal to the town,” she said, “so whoever put those messages on there wanted people to see it, wanted their hate to be visible. That is very disturbing.”
Latest of four incidents
The defacement of the rock was the most recent of four incidents of hate speech reported to the police. In October, fresh graffiti that a resident perceived to be anti-Islamic was discovered at the Route 2 underpass on Depot Road and reported in the Press. Later that week a kayaker discovered and reported graffiti on the railroad bridge leading from Harvard to Devens with a slogan that read, “No MexiJews.” A third incident, characterized as racially divisive, was reported in late October in a letter sent to parents by the School Committee (See the Nov. 4 Press article “School leaders respond … ”), but the letters provided no additional details about the incident. Police Chief Edward Denmark told the Press this week that information about the case was confidential because a police investigation determined that no crime had been committed, and therefore the identity of the students involved and the actions taken by the Bromfield administration were protected by statute. He said if the police or schools had released more details, the identity of the perpetrator would have been revealed, violating confidentiality laws and exposing the schools to a potential lawsuit.
A Nextdoor thread curtailed
The Bromfield rock on Friday morning, Nov. 25. (Courtesy photo)
The school community learned of the Bromfield rock defacement via an email from Dwight to faculty, students, parents, and town residents on Friday afternoon, just hours after the graffiti had been discovered by resident Robert Curran, who walks by the rock most mornings with his dog. In a phone interview, Curran said he was “horrified” to discover the graffiti. He posted a photo on Nextdoor Friday morning, writing, “Sadly, this has happened in Harvard.” It was through Curran’s photo and Nextdoor post, which drew more than 100 replies expressing a shared sense of outrage and concern, that the defacement came to Dwight’s attention, and she was the one to report it to police.
Curran, however, ended discussion on that thread Monday evening after the posts on Nextdoor veered toward the results of the recent election and racism, which some took personally. “I am all for spirited debate on any subject, but the open threads of Nextdoor Harvard are just not the place for a national political discussion,” wrote Curran. “We are neighbors here and can do so much better than this.” Curran started a new thread titled “Faith Restored” for those who wanted to support the repainting of the rock, but urged those who wanted to have a political discussion to move to a new National Politics group he had created on Nextdoor.
Although no suspects have yet been identified, Chief Denmark told the Press Monday afternoon that if criminal intent could be proved, the perpetrator or perpetrators could be subject to four criminal charges: felonious property defacement and tagging, and the misdemeanor offenses of civil rights violation and criminal harassment (For more of the Press interview with Denmark, see “Police chief says graffiti ‘unsophisticated,’ ‘attention-seeking’” above). The Massachusetts attorney general’s office has also been informed, and evidence recovered at the scene is being processed. The police request that anyone with information contact their office at 978-456-8276. “We will take anonymous tips, any information you have,” said Detective Daniele Fortunato in an interview Friday. Superintendent Dwight also solicited tips and information in her email, requesting that people report information via www.harvard.ma.us/police-department/webforms/anonymous-tips or by calling 978-456-4140 or 978-456-4152.
Students respond
The ongoing investigation did not stop the Department of Public Works from taking quick action last Friday to cover the graffiti with paint and a tarp Friday. And by that evening, student Maggie Gill and former student Emma Franzeim had already created a Facebook page for a “Paint the Rock” event the next day for students and community members to gather and repaint the Bromfield rock. As of Tuesday evening this week, the GoFundMe campaign had raised $1,666 toward its $2,000 goal. Franzeim told the Press on Saturday that she had spent more than $750 for paint and equipment to paint over the graffiti in white.
“I was really upset that someone had ruined our message of peace with hate,” said student organizer Gill in a phone interview. “I thought the best way to right a wrong was to get together as a community and promote peace.”
For her part, Dwight agreed that a community response was essential to this kind of divisive event. “This is not just a school issue, it’s a community issue,” she said. She is already working with a diversity trainer to design in-school programming for students and teachers around issues of diversity. She added, “I’d love to see other town leaders become a part of this: churches, the town administrator, Board of Selectmen—the conversation has to be bigger than just the schools. More people have to get involved. The diversity committee is going to try to help make that happen … [because] it’s very disappointing and disheartening that this happened here. You read about it in the newspapers, but it’s really, really upsetting right here among our own children.”
A community vigil
Meanwhile, leaders of Harvard’s Unitarian Universalist Church, saying they were “angered and saddened by recent bigoted and racist actions in our local schools and at Bromfield,” announced plans for a candlelight vigil against bigotry on Sunday night, Dec. 4, from 5 to 6:30 p.m. on the Common. Candles and hot drinks will be provided.
