Earlier this morning, graffiti containing racial slurs, presumably concerning Superintendent Omar Easy, was discovered on the side of the Wayland Community Pool, located on Wayland High School grounds. Police have been present at WHS, investigating the incident.

Principal Allyson Mizoguchi sent out a memo to students, families and faculty regarding the discovery, which confirmed the message of the graffiti.

“The words ‘Omar’ and the N-word were painted in white,” Mizoguchi said.

In response to the event on the morning of Dec. 21, WHS is holding a schoolwide emergency advisory meeting that will be held for 20 minutes from 1:23 p.m to 1:45 p.m.. Due to this emergency advisory meeting, students’ fifth block class will end at 1:18 p.m..

The advisory will begin with an all-school announcement, and then transition into guided conversation that will allow students and staff to share their feelings and process the incident. Additional resources are provided for anyone, students and staff, who wish to discuss their feelings about this racist incident.

Vice Principal Sean Gass sent out an email on behalf of the principals and assistant-principals to all teachers announcing the special advisory schedule. In the email, Gass encouraged teachers to discuss the incident with any students who asked, and to reiterate WHS core values and beliefs.

“We encourage [staff] to open a safe and collaborative conversation,” Gass said in his email. “If you need some words to use, a statement could be ‘We are outraged and hurt by what has been done in our community, and we stand against racism in all of its forms. This is completely against our values. This is being investigated by Wayland Police, and we are supporting that investigation.’”

The Wayland Police Department is actively investigating the graffiti, and WHS fully supports the investigation.

“We denounce this heinous act of racism that violates our core values and does great harm to our community,” Mizoguchi said. “We do not tolerate racism.”