A viral TikTok post showing four students at a Santa Barbara-area high school in blackface sparked outrage and calls for increased punishment as a community reckoned with allegations of racism on campus.
The four female students were identified and disciplined, according to officials at San Marcos High School and the Santa Barbara Unified School District, who did not release the students’ names or detail the discipline.
Several weeks before the post went viral, it was reported to school officials through their Safe to Speak Up Program, according to a statement from Principal Dare Holdren. The image, which showed four female students with artificially darkened skin imitating the pose of four young Black boys as part of a popular TikTok trend, continued to circulate, drawing condemnation online.
The post, archived by the Santa Barbara Independent, was captioned “meet the gc,” or group chat, and included a caption with several ninja emojis. The ninja emoji often is used in online shorthand as the N-word.
The picture of the boys was a viral TikTok prompt that encouraged users to show images of their group chats. Many users posted images of themselves and their friends in response.
“We contacted the offending students’ families and instituted consequences, and are working to educate the students about the impact of their actions,” Holdren said. “Additionally, we continue to work with those impacted by the posting.”
Much of the online chatter focused on speculation about what punishment the students received.
“This incident was handled through established student discipline processes,” Santa Barbara Unified School District Superintendent Dr. Hilda Maldonado wrote. “We will not discuss individual student consequences publicly because students deserve privacy.”
Connie Alexander, the head of the Santa Barbara chapter of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, condemned the incident in an opinion essay for the Independent.
“The same leaders and systems keep failing,” Alexander wrote. “It is time for new leadership and systemic change.”
In June, students spoke up at a district board meeting, claiming that racial slurs had become more commonplace on campus, the Independent reported.
In August, a former teacher at San Marcos High wrote in the Independent that she faced discrimination as a Black woman.
“I am no longer surprised when Black students say they don’t feel safe in our schools,” former teacher Ariel Phoenix wrote. “But I refuse to become comfortable with that reality.”
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