East Falls strikes back at racist graffiti with laying of painted hands

Looking to take a symbolic stand against racism, East Falls community leaders, students and residents will rally tomorrow outside Mifflin School, where vandals last week painted racist graffiti over a mural celebrating the school district's diversity.

Participants in the "Hands Around the School Unity Celebration" also will paint their hands and leave handprints on the old mural, which district workers had covered in battleship-gray paint on April 9 to hide the swastikas, slurs and other offensive scribblings vandals had left overnight.

"It is vital to not ignore the fact that the school was defaced in such a way that was extremely hurtful to many, many people," said Adam Carangi, president of the East Falls Community Council. "However, it's even more important to realize that instead of creating a chasm, this has brought together folks throughout the entire area that Mifflin serves, and has done so in a way that can be built upon, as we all work to make Mifflin a quality school for all to attend."

The event will start at 10 a.m. at the school on Conrad Street near Midvale Avenue. It is sponsored by the school district, Councilman Curtis Jones Jr., state Rep. Jewell Williams, the East Falls Community Council, the Abbotsford Tenant Association and Citizens for a Diverse Neighborhood.

Police haven't identified the vandals who defaced the mural.

Students arriving for school on April 9 discovered that vandals had painted swastikas over and otherwise obliterated the faces of black children in the two-story mural. The thugs also used rust-colored paint to scrawl racist slurs and this threat, apparently referring to the recent rash of unprovoked subway attacks: "In the next subway attack, we will kill you."

Racial tensions have simmered for months at Mifflin, where a small but strident group of black parents and teachers has complained and picketed against a white principal whom it accused of discrimination and insensitivity toward minority students. District investigators have cleared the principal, Allyssa Schmitt, of wrongdoing. *