NAACP leaders in California are criticizing a Santa Barbara-area school district after four teenage girls appeared in a TikTok video depicting blackface. The civil rights organization says officials failed to respond appropriately to the racist social media post.
The students, who attend San Marcos High School, received undisclosed disciplinary consequences. But Connie Alexander, president of the Santa Barbara NAACP, said Friday that the district’s handling of the incident was inadequate.
“SBUSD has struggled to establish protocols to respond to racial incidents and execute them with humanity,” Alexander wrote in an opinion piece published by the Santa Barbara Independent. She said school principals need clearer direction, while families and students deserve accessible information about investigations and possible discipline involving racist conduct.
Alexander also called for greater transparency and consistency in the district’s disciplinary decisions. “Far too many Black students have been suspended for less severe infractions,” she wrote.
The girls’ identities have not been released. In the image, they appear to recreate an AI-generated picture showing four young Black boys in different poses—a format that has gained traction on TikTok.
The post carried the caption, “Meet the gc🥷🥷🥷🥷🥷🥷🥷….” The ninja emoji has been used online as a coded reference to the N-word.
San Marcos High School Principal Dare Holdren described the students’ post as portraying blackface and said the school had taken action against all four, according to a message sent to parents Friday.
Holdren said the image was reported to administrators through the school’s Safe to Speak Up system about two weeks earlier and that the administrative team acted promptly.
“As the image has continued to circulate among students and has affected members of our school community, we believe it is important to address it with our broader community as well,” Holdren wrote.
The school notified the students’ families and said it was educating the teenagers about the consequences of their conduct. “Racial stereotypes are harmful and have no place in our schools,” Holdren wrote.
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He added that intent does not erase impact, saying students must recognize how their words, images and actions can affect others.
Alexander said the district’s response could lead to changes among school and district leaders. She accused officials of mishandling the situation surrounding the TikTok post.
“The same leaders and systems keep failing. It is time for new leadership and systemic change,” Alexander wrote.
The controversy comes after other racial incidents have raised concerns within the Santa Barbara school district.
The Santa Barbara Independent reported that a substitute teacher at San Marcos High School read the N-word aloud during a classroom reading of “Of Mice and Men” last year, despite being instructed not to do so. The substitute was subsequently removed from campus.
At a June 9 community meeting, residents and students said racial tensions and concerns remained present at the school.
“Black students do not feel safe here, and I have personally lost friends who moved away because of it,” one student said during the meeting.
“There is only one way to view this racist incident—not two; it is simply wrong,” Alexander wrote.
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