Black student wore orange jumpsuit, sat behind bars on homecoming float; now teachers must attend training

Bella Vista High School staff gave its top prize to the junior class’ cops-and-robbers homecoming parade float back in September.

Teachers in one California school district will attend mandatory training after a Black student wore an orange jumpsuit and sat behind fake prison bars for a homecoming float.

Capital Public Radio reported that in September, staff members at Bella Vista High School awarded the top prize to the junior class’ cops-and-robbers-themed parade float, which featured several white students in police uniforms seemingly guarding the lone “incarcerated” Black student.

At least one Black junior and two white students costumed in black-and-white prison stripe uniforms walked behind the float.

The incident prompted the predominantly white school to apologize and launch a month-long investigation, concluding that school administrators accepted the float even though the Spirit Day theme was changed from “cops and robbers” to “Adam Sandler Day,” since students had finished and “already put several weeks of work” into its design.

“Appropriate actions are being taken as a result of the investigation,” said a San Juan Unified School District email. “We are working with our Black Student Union and several community partners, engaging in additional professional learning, and we’ve asked that all of our schools districtwide ask themselves critical questions before deciding themes for future events and spirit days.”

The Sacramento County-based district acknowledged that school instructors made the incorrect decision and promised to “expand efforts” with the Black Student Union and numerous community partners to “build opportunities and support” for Black students.

Bella Vista is 62% white, 22% Hispanic, 7% two or more races, 4% Asian and 2% Black students, according to CapRadio.

Jayha Buhs-Jackson, president of the school’s Black Student Union, said regardless of who participated in the float, the design could bring up many issues surrounding the criminal justice system and mass incarceration.

“My dad is a Black man and very dark-skinned,” she shared. “Every interaction he’s faced with people in the system has not been positive.”

Buhs-Jackson said she had not heard anything about the inquiry or its findings, leaving her fearful that the resolutions are “empty words, empty promises.”

She and the rest of the Black Student Union, including member Dominique Edwards, banded together to give Bella Vista’s principal a list of resolutions that included diversity in campus decision-making, a staff-student equity team and enhanced racial education for staff and students.

Buhs-Jackson and Edwards both alluded to racism in an underlying campus culture. Edwards, a cheerleader, said she has experienced a few microaggressions thrown at her. 

“They cannot see how [their actions] affect people of color and Black people. They tend to keep us on the side and put the white people or people that are just lighter in the center,” she contended, CapRadio reported. “Some people will say stuff [around me] and it’s like, ‘You realize I’m standing right here, right?'”

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