COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO -- Early Friday morning staff and students could still see the racial slur at Evans International Elementary School in Colorado Springs.
Rosemary Harris Lytle, president of NAACP, told FOX21 News complaints were made to the principal during the first week of school back in August.
“From what we know the principal refused to take action for all of these months, refusing the graffiti and have our children learn and play around it rather than removing it,” said Lytle.
Stephanie Meredith with School District 49 says they would never allow the N-word or any graffiti on their schools and have taken action immediately.
“Our procedure is that as soon as there is any graffiti reported it's taken down immediately. We were just really surprised that there were some claims that it had been up for an extended period of time,” said Meredith.
Still, Lytle says someone working at the elementary school made the complaint, saying it had been up for a while and action needed to be taken.
A letter was written to the principal on behalf of the NAACP and its education committee co-chairs demanding the immediate removal of the offensive word, and writing that the principal should be disciplined.
Lytle's asking for the superintendent to sit down, have a conversation about what happened and why the N-word was up for as long as the employee, who remains anonymous, says it was up.
“Not only should buildings be clean, they should be free of anything that would disrupt the learning process, and if a principal sees that, he or she should take immediate action. It's all about our students," she said.
School District 49 says the principal was not aware the graffiti. By late afternoon Friday it was cleared up.
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