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The Serna Center \u2013 headquarters of the Sacramento City Unified School District \u2013 on Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026.<\/p>\n
JOS\u00c9 LUIS VILLEGAS<\/p>\n
jvillegas@sacbee.com<\/p>\n
On Juneteenth<\/a>, when we commemorate the emancipation of enslaved African Americans in 1865, I\u2019d like to remind Sacramento City Unified School District<\/a> administrators of how profoundly Black children feel the pain and trauma of racial slurs hurled at them by other children they serve.<\/p>\n They are not immune to experiencing humiliation, fear, anxiety, anger, isolation, powerlessness, and a loss of belonging. They also feel poison darts of doubt that cause them to question whether they are good enough.<\/p>\n One Black child, a 14-year-old girl at Leonardo da Vinci TK-8 School,<\/a> was called the N-word by classmates on June 8 and then left to stew all day in a heartsick state of mind, her mother said at Thursday\u2019s SCUSD board meeting.<\/a><\/p>\n Seanella Barnes said that on the day of the incident, no teacher or administrator assured her daughter that she was \u201ca great child,\u201d \u201ca model student,\u201d and \u201csuch a leader around campus.\u201d<\/p>\n Barnes said administrators expressed those feelings to her a day after two male classmates called her daughter the N-word during a second-period history class at the school in Sacramento\u2019s Hollywood Park neighborhood. Her child then spent the day frightened, shaken, and trying to process what had happened.<\/p>\n \u201cThey checked the box and moved on,\u201d Barnes said at Thursday\u2019s school board meeting. \u201cThe day and time that it happened, nobody even called me and told me this was happening. … I had to check in with my own child, because she was brave enough and had enough sense to say something happened.\u201d<\/p>\n District officials said in a statement Thursday that were unable to corroborate the allegation, a finding Barnes and her family rejected and found deeply disappointing.<\/p>\n For generations, America has struggled to recognize Black pain with the same urgency and empathy it extends to others.<\/p>\n When angry white mobs screamed racial epithets at Black children integrating Southern schools<\/a> more than a half-century ago, few adults stopped to ask what that experience might do to a child\u2019s mental health. Few wondered about trauma. Was there any counseling?<\/p>\n The expectation was endurance: Walk through it. Ignore it. Be strong. Keep going.<\/p>\n Black parents of that era comforted their children and nurtured them through that trauma, knowing their children\u2019s success would be used by many Americans as a measure of whether integration itself could work. They knew that, for their kids, integration would lead to better jobs, higher pay, and a wider slice of the American dream.<\/p>\n When it comes to how school administrators handle racial harassment of Black students, I fear we still expect African American children to bear the burdens of the nation\u2019s racist past.<\/p>\n Researchers have long documented that Black students in California experience significant disparities in school discipline.<\/a> There are ongoing concerns about whether schools adequately protect Black children from race-based harassment. Nationally, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found that experiencing racism at school<\/a> is associated with poor mental health and elevated suicide risk indicators.<\/p>\n When racial incidents occur in schools, discussions often shift immediately toward investigations, liability, discipline and image management.<\/p>\n The child disappears.<\/p>\n Barnes described her daughter as a student who had loved socializing, percussion and history but now was begging to stay home from school. Her 14-year-old with an independent spirit suddenly began texting her constantly, suffering anxiety, fear and sleeplessness. Her daughter with a 3.65 GPA didn\u2019t want to attend graduation.<\/p>\n In its statement, the district said that it \u201ccounts student safety and well-being among its highest priorities every day.\u201d Barnes feels differently.<\/p>\n \u201cThey failed us,\u201d Barnes said of Da Vinci administrators. \u201cI had to hold her in my arms and console her while she cried and begged me not to make her go back to school. That broke something in me, to know that she was so defeated.\u201d<\/p>\n What struck me most, though, was not what Barnes said but what her daughter told SCUSD trustees at Thursday\u2019s board meeting.<\/p>\n \u201cIt should not be OK for people to be … racially bullied based on the color of their skin,\u201d she said. \u201cI feel scared to even go to school and have fun and celebrate what\u2019s important to me.\u201d<\/p>\n Restorative-practice experts often begin somewhere simpler, with acknowledgment and healing.<\/p>\n Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson has argued that Americans have never fully reckoned with slavery, segregation and racial terror. Indeed, the Trump administration is busy removing<\/a> acknowledgments to as much of it as it can muster.<\/p>\n
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