KKK graffiti leads to expulsions

When RC Hawkins Construction Co. president and owner Mike Hawkins came to check on his workers at Sinclair Elementary School on Aug. 25, he was surprised to see police cruisers there.

“I sent my guy to do a job for Finley Paving and there were four cop cars and a truck sitting at the entrance,” said Hawkins. “I was figuring somebody ran into somebody.”

Turns out the police were there to examine the racist symbols made out of sod from his company. The sod was supposed to be used around new curbs and sidewalks at the school. According to police,
four teenagers — three white and one black — were charged with vandalism after using the sod to form the letters “KKK” and the phrase “White Power” along with a swastika in the parking lot of the
Manassas-area school.

All are Stonewall Jackson High School students.

Hawkins then got a call from the father of one of the boys involved. The man wanted his son to help lay sod as a punishment. The man had worked for Hawkins’ father many years ago and felt comfortable
that his son would learn his lesson through a little manual labor.

According to Hawkins, the teen and his friend laid sod until 6 or 7 that evening and he thought the issue was over. Hawkins said that if his had father caught him screwing up as a kid, he would have done
the same thing.

But that was not the end of it. After four of the six Stonewall students involved in the incident were charged with vandalism, two of them were expelled for a full calendar year and the four others were
expelled for at least the rest of the semester.

The Prince William County School Board Disciplinary Committee decided the boys’ fate Wednesday.

Could return sooner
Three of the four individuals whose cases were heard were expelled for the year but could return to school at the start of the second semester in January, provided they complete a certain number of hours
of community service and adhere to a strict behavior contract. The fourth was expelled for the rest of the semester and also has to adhere to similar standards.

All six students were recommended for expulsion by the county’s Office of Student Management and Alternative Programs. The two students who didn’t appeal were expelled for the year.

Hawkins said he believes the issue was blown out of proportion by the schools.

“They are trying to railroad these kids for basically being kids. It’s asinine,” he said.

Hawkins said he was not interviewed by police after the incident and wrote a letter on the family’s behalf that he would not make a legal issue of the matter.

“It [the sod] was my property until they [the schools] paid for it; so if anybody was going to press charges, it would have been me,” Hawkins said. “I had no intent to do any of that.”

The students in question went through a diversions program in lieu of court proceedings and, according to several of the parents, completed the required community service earlier this month. That service
included a trip to the Holocaust Museum.

According to a letter sent Oct. 13 by Juvenile Intake Officer Robert C. Nace to OSMAP Director Pam Brown, if the diversion program is completed by the students, the “complaint will be considered
resolved.”

Rae Roach, the mother of two of the boys involved, said the boys did what they did as a prank and she called the “due process” of the hearings that took place over two months “a miscarriage of justice.”

“All the parents believe they should have been punished,” said Roach. “But they don’t believe the school system should have this kind of leverage over a child’s life to basically put their own twist on these
children’s activities and thoughts.”

Before the hearings Wednesday, Roach said she contacted Del. Jackson H. Miller, R-50th, and Sen. Charles J. Colgan, D-Manassas,  about enacting legislation to “limit the school board’s ability to make these kinds of decisions.”

“It’s opinion-based,” Roach said. “They are saying they [the students] are a threat, they pose a threat and are a potential threat to students, teachers ... and that’s just downright ridiculous. Because they
put hateful words in sod does not make them a threat to anybody. They [Roach’s sons] have been in the [Prince William County] school system their entire academic life and they have never been into
the principal’s office.”

Another parent called the previous hearings, which included a meeting with the Stonewall Jackson High School principal and an OSMAP hearing, “a dog and pony show” meant to show the community
they were out to enforce a “zero tolerance policy” mentioned in the school’s Code of Behavior.

The intention of the code is to guide students’ behavior in the school buildings, on school buses, to and from school, and during participation in any activity sponsored by Prince William County Public
Schools.

Under a section titled Discrimination, it states “All persons and groups within the school are to be treated with dignity and respect. Discrimination on the basis of age, gender, race, color, religion, national
origin, disabilities, economic status, personal and physical characteristics, or other characteristics of individuals or groups will not be tolerated. Actions, gestures, statements (spoken or written), dress,
or symbols which insult, offend, taunt, or demean others because of their individual or group differences may result in corrective action up to and including expulsion.”

Staff writer Kipp Hanley can be reached at 703-878-8062.