Brown Dolls In Nooses: Racism Jolts Saratoga Schools by Ritu Marwah

Symbols of Racism in the School Quad

On November 15th, 2022, the community of Saratoga-Campbell was jolted by the information that dark-complexioned dolls hung by nooses around their necks, were discovered in the quads of three public schools: Redwood Middle, Prospect High, and Saratoga High.

“When we returned to school on Monday we saw nothing. We got to know about the incident through a note sent by the administration,” Arshi Chawla, a member of Saratoga High’s Anti-Racism Task Force, told India Currents. The incident occurred on a Friday night (November 11), and the schools informed students after the weekend.

“We know where it happened. I saw a group of people gathered around a ladder propped up outside Mrs. Kramer’s classroom,” said Raghav, a Redwood Middle School student, describing the scene where a dark-skinned doll had hung, it’s head in a noose.

Racism is not a Joke

At his school said Raghav, students had shrunk away into their classrooms with awkward smiles and an air of nonchalance. They tried to play it off as a rude prank.

“Just like when a student is rude to a teacher and you know it is not funny, but you still laugh like it is a joke,” he said.

“We did not talk about it.” Raghav looked embarrassed when asked about the reaction of the only black student in his grade. “We are not going to ask him about it. It is too personal.” He shrugged off the incident. “I have never experienced hate. This is SARATOGA! We have such a mixed-race culture here.”

At Redwood Middle, another student, Allison, said that her parents were worried and wondered, “how far will they go? ”

The school administration was quick to react.

“A noose is a reprehensible symbol of hate and violence,” said Ken Geisick, Saratoga Union School District’s superintendent, in a statement issued immediately on Nov. 16. Authorities launched a hate crime investigation. The sheriff’s office described the incidents as “heinous acts,” and that they are taking these cases seriously.

A Diverse School District

In the diverse community of South Bay’s Saratoga, where the median income is 200,000 and the median house price is worth 2 million, 43 percent of the population is foreign-born.

Residences located in Saratoga feed into two high schools – Saratoga High and Los Gatos High. Saratoga High is over 60%  Asian and Los Gatos High is over 60 % white. Redwood Middle feeds into Saratoga High. Los Gatos-Saratoga Joint Union High School District is listed as the top three school districts in California by Niche.

Why Parents Stayed Silent

While staff, students, and authorities at the schools openly condemned the incident, Saratoga parents remained unexpectedly silent.

“In Redwood Middle School, a parent meeting previously planned [prior to the noose doll incident] suddenly saw no attendance from parents after the incident. The subject was not discussed,” said Chani Modi, President of PTA Redwood Middle School, to India Currents.

“They perhaps think there is little they can do about the incident,” surmised Modi. Though several Asian parents had called Modi to discuss another issue – the resignation of music teachers – when it came to racism on campus, school parents were strangely reticent.

“My mother saw the email from the school about the incident. She asked me about it and then just raised her eyebrows with a disappointed look,” said Raunak, a 7th grader at Redwood Middle.

Kaasha Minocha, the former news/ entertainment editor of Saratoga’s school newsmagazine Falcon, explained that apathy from parents may stem from a lack of understanding of the symbolism of a noose. Perhaps many immigrant parents cannot fully comprehend the pain attached to the n-word, a homophobic slur, or a lynching threat. In their newly adopted nation, they may be disassociated from the history of pain that generations of Americans have internalized.

“In most cases, students better understand the symbolism of a noose more than our parents do because we have read about it and our curriculum exposes us to black history including slavery, Jim Crow laws and segregation in the 50s and 60s,” said Minocha, who graduated in 2022.

Lack of Understanding

“My mom doesn’t understand the issue. I mean she knows it is bad, but she doesn’t get the issue,” said a middle schooler who speaks Mandarin at home. “She is not from here. She did not grow up in the US.”

“My parents? Oh, my parents did not understand the gravity of the whole incident. My parents grew up in India. They are not exposed to everything we are exposed to in school regarding black history,” said Shreya Rallabandi, a member of Saratoga High’s Anti-Racism Task Force.

Immigrant families well on their way to achieving the American dream may perceive and interpret racist acts differently from their own children, who learn about racism and segregation at school. Among Indian families, racism often is a taboo subject. So, to them, acknowledging a racist incident may mean admitting the shame that their first-generation children are still outsiders in their new homeland, despite their parents’ economic success.