Anne Arundel County Public School Superintendent Mark Bedell sent a letter to the district community Friday denouncing racist texts received by students nationwide, including in Anne Arundel.

“The timing of the messages, in the wake of a close presidential election that has stirred anxiety across the nation for months, only adds to the trepidation and fear experienced by young people whose phones are suddenly and unwantedly littered with these messages,” said Bedell in the letter.

Maryland’s attorney general said Thursday that his office has received “multiple reports of racist text messages” sent to Marylanders over the past few days, as part of what is believed to be a nationwide campaign targeting Black people following Tuesday’s election.

The messages, which vary, falsely alert recipients they have been chosen to “pick cotton” according to a news release Thursday from Maryland’s Office of the Attorney General.

Bedell also described students receiving messages from people identifying themselves as a “deportation group.”

Anne Arundel County Police, the Maryland Center for School Safety and the FBI were informed about the messages received by Anne Arundel students, according to Bedell.

Bedell urged anyone who receives a message to contact law enforcement and not share the messages publicly.

“Doing so only emboldens the cowards who are undertaking these acts,” Bedell said.

Bedell met with all principals and senior leadership Friday to say the school district will not tolerate the behavior and that consequences will be applied in accordance with the Code of Student Conduct whenever possible. There is no evidence so far that Maryland students were involved in sending the text messages.

“There is no latitude,” Bedell said.

He also instructed principals to reinforce the updated cell phone guidelines with teachers and ensure that school counselors and other student services staff are informed on the issue and prepared to discuss it with students.

“Students should only need to ask any adult in their building to be directed to support resources,” Bedell said.

In his letter, Bedell urged parents and guardians to regularly monitor their child’s devices.

“Our students live in a social media generation, but those who have received these messages are understandably afraid. After all, the messages have arrived from an unknown sender using a masked phone number and contain the name of the recipient,” Bedell said.

Maryland residents can lodge a civil rights complaint with the Maryland Commission on Hate Crimes Response and Prevention at nohomeforhate.md.gov.

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