Students and community condemn racist Padlet attack at Lowell High; board pledges audits and student supports

Students, alumni and community leaders told the San Francisco Board of Education that an incident on Jan. 20 in which pornographic images and racial slurs were posted to a Padlet used in an anti-racism lesson has reawakened decades of trauma surrounding Lowell High School. The posts were taken down by school staff and the district says it is investigating who created the entries. Assistant Superintendent Bill Sanderson told the board the posting was discovered Wednesday afternoon, removed and is the subject of an ongoing investigation; staff said they have not yet identified the responsible individual.

Lowell students and supporters said the episode was not an isolated prank. Members of the Lowell Black Student Union, the African American Parent Advisory Council (APAC), the San Francisco Alliance of Black School Educators and the NAACP described long-standing patterns of anti‑Black and racist conduct at Lowell, and urged the board to…