On Jan. 28, 2026, a racial slur was directly shouted at a San Man High School staff member on campus, resulting in the suspension of several students. In the week that followed, there were several reported uses of the n-word on the school’s campus. The racist culture at San Marin has been addressed by previous principals, in addition to current principal Andy Boone, yet the issue of repeated hate speech still occurs on and around campus. Students have often denied all accounts of involvement and with lack of definite proof of statements, the cycle has repeated itself.
“I believe racism is alive around the world… It’s alive in Marin County. It’s alive in Novato, and if you zoom in to San Marin as one of the high schools in the county, racism’s here,” Boone said. “I think about high schools as a reflection of our community, of the city, of the county, [and] of the country, so it’s not contained just [at] San Marin. San Marin has a history of hate speech and racial incidents that have occurred that nobody is proud of.”
Campus supervisor Milton Hodge was the direct target of racial slurs that were yelled on campus.
“I would… say someone just… called me the n-word,” Hodge said. “And it just happened to be a student out front, doing a project.”
Until 1992, San Marin held “slave day,” which was a spirit day where underclassmen were “bought” on a Friday in the gym, dressed up in ripped clothes and chains to be “auctioned off” to upperclassmen. A 2022 Pony Express article also reported finding references to “slave day” in a 1984 school yearbook.
In March 2021, the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Northern California filed an appeal to the California Department of Education on behalf of a parent in the Novato Unified School District (NUSD), who uncovered data demonstrating that Black and Latino students are disproportionately excluded from the San Marin Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) program. They also found that the district’s admissions process for the program maintains a cycle of bias against students of color. In the fall of 2021, after receiving complaints from three separate high schools, there was credible evidence that three or four San Marin football players used racial epithets towards players on opposing teams during games. The resulting investigation was inconclusive and no formal consequences were given.
These repeated acts have given San Marin a racist reputation in Marin County. Student behavior has reinforced these beliefs.
“Talk to the average student and they’ll say that the n-word is just normalized here in various ways, that people say sexist, racist, [and] ableist things all the time,” Philosophy teacher and Restorative Practices Coordinator Wesley Swedlow said. “[People hear it] passing from class-to-class. I just had a conversation [about] it. My class had a circle [about] the n-word, and a kid went to the bathroom. He’s like, ‘Yeah, I just heard it.’”
Swedlow has taught at San Marin for over 20 years and has been advising the Anti-Racist Student Union (A.R.S.U.) since 2012, a union that holds upstander trainings and frequently works with San Marin’s Black Student Union (B.S.U.). B.S.U. began meeting frequently as a club in the past few years, and has worked with the staff on awareness and training to become an upstander. Both unions have made efforts towards emphasizing the facts behind racial slurs aging back to hundreds of years of American history. The most recent upstander trainings were held in freshman Ethnic Studies classes during the middle of March.
“I think that it can come off that [San Marin has a racist culture],” junior and A.R.S.U. member Brooklyn Lee-Yon said. “We try to raise awareness of what has been going on in the world and also how to bring about change to certain problems. The Wellness Hub and A.R.S.U. recently did a presentation to freshmen on how to be an upstander and what steps they should take towards being an upstander and how to call out [bullying]. I think these groups make a real difference because we bring attention to the real problems and actually discuss it openly. ”
Incidents like these may feel specific to one community, but they reflect widespread issues rooted in American culture and history. The normalization of harmful language and microaggressions continues to persist across generations and communities.
“I hear [the n-word] culturally and [in] rap,” Hodge said. “I know the genre of histories, and how it’s used, but I don’t prefer it because I have a great-grandfather who told me about the atrocities of slavery… It’s not a term of endearment.”
San Marin administrators are determined to repair the tension in the campus culture.
“[The January 26] conduct runs counter to the culture we are working hard to build at San Marin and reinforces perceptions and criticisms that do not reflect who we aspire to be as a school community,” Boone said in an email to parents and students on February 5. “A racial slur is always a racial slur, regardless of the context. Racial slurs are harmful, and they impact everything.”
San Marin plans on holding more racial awareness events and upstander trainings to encourage more students at San Marin to stand up against racism. Teams at San Marin such as A.R.S.U., B.S.U., and the Wellness Hub Club have already begun to administer these events, and continue to respond to issues through increased awareness efforts. As these programs expand, staff and students aim to address campus behavior and encourage a more inclusive environment at San Marin.
H. Hellfinger • May 8, 2026 at 8:09 am
They should check way more than the 1984 yearbook. Not only was there Slave Day when I was there, there was also Day of Infamy where students came to school as infamous characters like Hitler and Pol Pot. The 1987-1988 yearbook features photos from Spirit weeks showing a racial effigy being paraded around, a white male student with his slaves – all females of color holding him on a palanquin, a student sitting in his Confederate flag chair, and a slaver subjecting his male slave to gender transformation thus illustrating the rampant homophobia. I was scared attending that school (1987-1989) and transferred to Novato High where I graduated.
My son, a person of color, being raised in the San Marin neighborhood will NEVER attend that school.