Advertisement

NAACP calls for changes at St. Pete Catholic High, citing racist graffiti

Branch president meets with the principal, says Black students have been targeted in other incidents.
 
The entrance to St. Petersburg Catholic High, 6333 Ninth Ave. N in St. Petersburg.
The entrance to St. Petersburg Catholic High, 6333 Ninth Ave. N in St. Petersburg. [ Google Maps ]
Published Feb. 2, 2022|Updated Feb. 2, 2022

The NAACP St. Petersburg Branch and community leaders are calling for changes at St. Petersburg Catholic High School, where Black students have been the target of racist graffiti and other acts.

Branch president Esther Matthews met with principal Ross Bubolz before a news conference Tuesday at the school after hearing about violent, racist graffiti written in a school restroom in mid-January. The incident was first reported by WTSP-Channel 10.

Matthews also detailed other recent allegations she’s heard about at the school: a Black student being referred to as “slave” by a classmate, a teacher who had the word “monkey” carved in a door and a dean who called Black students “hoodlums.”

Esther Matthews [ DOUGLAS CLIFFORD | Times ]

“When these things happen here, it says that we have students in an environment where we have allowed racial hatred to fester unchecked,” Matthews said at the news conference. “These are teachable moments.”

In an interview, Matthews said she first heard of the graffiti when a student and her grandmother reached out with a photo.

“This racial tension has been festering and has been festering for quite a while,” she said. “They did not feel they were being heard by the school and school administration.”

Matthews wrote a letter to the school asking for a meeting with Bubolz, who had met with a small group of Black students to discuss the incident. Matthews said it is her understanding that 56 of the roughly 300 students at St. Petersburg Catholic High are Black.

“I believe having the conversation with him allowed him to hear from a different voice what his students are saying,” Matthews said of Bubolz. “I feel like he received it.”

At the news conference, Bubolz said he would not comment on personnel matters regarding the dean.

But in a video message to families, he addressed the steps the school would be taking, including faculty training and engaging students in conversations about race and prejudice. He said St. Petersburg Police investigated the graffiti but have not been able to identify the person or persons responsible.

“This is not acceptable,” Bubolz said. “Hate and prejudice do not have a place here.”

He quoted Pope Francis in the school’s commitment to do better. “We cannot tolerate or turn a blind eye to racism and exclusion in any form and yet claim to defend the sacredness of human life,” he said.

Ella Coffee, a legislative assistant for State Sen. Darryl Rousson and an alumna of the school, spoke at the news conference, pointing to the irony of having to address these issues the same day the city’s first Black mayor, Ken Welch, raised the Black History Month Flag.

“We’re living in a day and time where these things are rearing their heads all over,” Matthews said.

Pinellas County Commissioner Rene Flowers also spoke, calling on the school to fire the dean. She said she was reminded of the long-ago struggles faced by parents of students in newly integrated schools. She told students she stood in solidarity with them.

“Not only do you have your parents, your biological parents, you have us,” Flowers said. “We will no longer stand idly by and allow our children to be considered second-class citizens.”

Rev. Louis Murphy, pastor of Mount Zion Progressive Missionary Baptist Church in St. Petersburg, said he too had vivid memories of segregation and the taunts he faced as a sixth grader.

“Here it is,” Murphy said. “Almost 50 years later, we’re still dealing with this type of racism.”

Though the nation is divided, he said, one of the most contentious topics could be one of the most useful. Learning the history and meaning of racial slurs is important, he said.

“This is the reason critical race theory needs to be taught in our schools,” Murphy said, referring to efforts by Republican lawmakers to outlaw the topic in Florida’s schools and workplaces. “So we can understand the history of how we got here.”