Racist graffiti mistaken for wacky cartoon in middle-school newsletter

Sequoia Middle School parents collectively emitted one sonorous, deafening "WTF" after seeing a racist cartoon in their kids' weekly newsletters. According to the Contra Costa Times, last week's edition of the Northern California middle school's publication — which "normally includes announcements, tidbits about current events, and an occasional cartoon" — featured a depiction of an African-American Peanuts character with a noose around his neck, the words "white pride" scrawled above him.

Apparently, the image appeared in the newsletter as the result of a gaff by a substitute secretary with poor Photoshop (and  racism-recognition) skills. Although the image was actually a 2008 photograph of graffiti found on a mural outside the school, the secretary (somehow) mistook it for a charming, "Cathy"-for-the-middle-school-set-esque cartoon, and embedded it into the school newsletter. "We will be making procedural and security changes to prevent such travesties from happening again," Principal Connie Cirimelli wrote in a letter to the school community Sunday. Yeah, that's probably a good idea.