The State - News from April 17, 1989

The homemade dolls that three junior high school students in San Leandro took to their English class generated a barrage of criticism from about 200 angry parents, students and teachers. One doll was dressed in a Ku Klux Klan robe. Another depicted a black person being hanged, and the third carried a sign with a racial epithet. The Bancroft Junior High School students were suspended and they issued an apology. “We will not forget it,” one angry parent shouted at a meeting. “We won’t let you sweep it under the rug.” Principal Bruce Jackson said an investigation is under way to determine who made the dolls. The three students, who were suspended for five days, wrote a letter that read, in part, “We want to apologize to the Bancroft school students, teachers and the community. Our actions were dumb, but not meant to be racist.”