Video has been shared with The Daily Beast showing a controversial ‘cops and robbers’ themed float that students presented at a California high school homecoming, mocking the criminal stereotype of Black people.
Rashawn Matthews, the mother of Bella Vista High School student Dominique Edwards, captured the float on video, telling The Daily Beast she was “totally shocked.”
“I couldn’t even look anywhere else,” Matthews said, explaining that she walked in near the end of the parade. “And then I looked around to see if any parents were having the same reaction.”
In a video Matthews shared with The Daily Beast, a crowd of students are seen standing on the sideline of a football field. A couple of other floats are off to the side, but the main attraction is the junior class float, featuring a black-and-white police car sitting outside of a jail cell.
Inside the jail cell, a Black student wears an orange jumpsuit, and tally marks representing the time he’s been incarcerated are drawn on the wall behind him. To the right of the cell, students of multiple races wearing striped burglar outfits pretend to rob a bank. Students dressed in navy blue and wearing police officer hats stand around the float.
According to Matthews all of the cops were white students.
Edwards, a junior at the high school and a member of the cheerleading squad, also said she was flabbergasted when the float moved in front of her on the track circling the football field.
“It was honestly very shocking because you’re like, ‘Is that a Black dude in an orange suit?’’ Edwards told The Daily Beast.
In a staff and student vote, the float went on to win first place in the homecoming parade.
Edwards said the school’s Black Student Union held an emergency meeting in response.
In an email the Black Student Union sent to Bella Vista administration and provided to The Daily Beast, the group noted that students voiced concerns regarding that year’s Cops and Robbers homecoming theme at the beginning of September. By Sept.12, administration alerted students that theme had been changed and any student dressed according to the Cops and Robbers theme would be sent home.
But on Sept. 15, according to the Black Student Union’s email, staff members and students voted in favor of the controversial float.
In an email provided to The Daily Beast, Bella Vista Principal Bryan Irwin apologized to families on Sept. 18.
“Originally, the theme of cops and robbers was included in Spirit Week. However, the appropriateness of the theme was questioned and ultimately the spirit day theme for Wednesday was changed,” the email read. “Because junior class students had already finished their float, the float was allowed in the homecoming parade on Friday, even though it still used a theme of cops and robbers.”
Irwin added that his decision to still allow the float in the parade is not a reflection of the Bella Vista community.
“Our school stands for respect and inclusion,” Irwin continued. “A cops and robbers theme relies on depictions of crime, violence, and weapons. It can also easily lead to furthering stereotypes. We will engage in restorative practices with those impacted by the float and will work to prevent a similar incident in the future.”
A Student Voices Forum was held after the principal’s note, where concerns were brought to forefront by students—except Black students.
According to Edwards, the forum was fairly small, optional, and teachers nominated who was able to speak. She said only a few people spoke in front of a crowd of around 20 people, however none of them were Black. Luckily, students who did speak talked about a need for increased diversity and cultural awareness, but not all of the students involved with making the float were in attendance, Edwards said.
On Sept. 26, the Black Student Union demanded in an email that Bella Vista High School provide a student-and-staff equity team, more diversity in student government, and increased cultural representation.
“This is not personal, this is not an attack,” students wrote, ‘it’s about a system of decision making that marginalizes specific groups.”
Edwards said the next Black Student Union meeting was crashed by members of the school’s student council, which contains only one Black student in a predominantly white organization. She said student council told the roughly 20 members of the Black Student Union that they were “overreacting.’
According to local outlet CBS Sacramento, district staff members will have to receive professional training on inclusion and diversity when organizing events following a month-long investigation into the incident.
Neither Bella Vista High School nor the San Juan Unified School District responded to The Daily Beast’s multiple requests for comment.
