What happened at Pepper Tree Elementary School? Racist sketch scandal explained as parent removes child from institution

Pepper Tree Elementary School has landed itself in trouble after some of the elementary school students received racist cards from their classmates during the ongoing Black History Month.

When the parents of the students who received racist cards learned about the incident, they started outraging over it and demanded answers from the school authorities. Moreover, a parent also pulled their ward from the school due to continuos harassment from fellow students.

According to reports, one of the students who was pulled out of Pepper Tree Elementary school after the row of harassment received a racist drawing from her classmate.

In the drawing, a stick figure was drawn which was hanging from the tree and a note was also written on the card that reads, "You're my favourite monkey." It further read, "To my favourite cotton picker."

Racist drawing that the student received (Image via KTLA)

For the unversed, cotton picker is a derogatory term for black people and the origin of this term refers to the time when black people were forced to do slavery.

---

What all happened at Pepper Tree Elementary School and how are parents reacting to it?

This was not the only incident that took place during Black History Month at Pepper Tree Elementary School.

Another black student was targeted by fellow students as the student received a card in which there was a drawing of a stick person holding a sign that read, "No more picking cotton." On the back of the card, "Happy Black History Month" was written.

Another racist drawing received by student (Image via KTLA)

Maylana and Rome Douglas's three children are studying at Pepper Tree Elementary School and reported that their daughter has also been bullied and targeted for racism.

While speaking to KTLA, Maylana Douglas said that a group of girls told her daughter that they would give her massages and back rubs because of the ongoing black month.

Other than this, the group of girls even said that they would only give back rubs for half a month because of the girl being only half Black.

Maylana Douglas further said:

"The group of girls said that they were going to give her (a drawing) that specifically said, ‘You’re my favorite slave,’ and they were going to show her as a slave hanging from a tree.”

---

What did Pepper Tree Elementary school authorities say about the recent racism row?

As the school has been receiving major backlash from parents after the racist incident, Upland USD Board President Sherman Garnett released a video in which he said:

"I want to make it perfectly clear that we have a strict zero-tolerance policy on any type of hate speech, harassment."

Pepper Tree Elementary school also released an official statement regarding the incident and said:

"An investigation took place immediately upon learning about these disgusting, racist drawings students gave to another child in their class … The content in those cards is shocking and abhorrent. We deeply regret that our student has had to endure the hurt that race based bullying causes."

Meanwhile, the principal of Pepper Tree Elementary school also sent a letter to parents about the racist drawings.

It is also to be noted that earlier students in Upland went through racist targeting. In 2022, a teacher made anti-Asian remarks during Lunar New Year celebrations and owing to that the teacher was asked to resign from the school.