'Hate and violence:' Noose found at Fremont high school

FREMONT, Calif. - A rope fashioned into a noose was found at a Fremont high school, leading school officials to condemn the act of "hate and violence." 

Fremont Unified School District Supt. CJ Cammack confirmed that officials found the noose on a tree at American High School on Tuesday.

In an email, Cammack said that the district celebrates "diversity and deeply values the caring, compassionate culture in our schools" and "actions that demonstrate disregard for our values and for the individuals in our school community will not be tolerated."

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He said the district is working with Fremont police to investigate who might be responsible for the noose.

The noose, the most powerful symbol of lynching Black Americans in the South after the Civil War,  have been found at other Bay Area schools in the past as well, including ropes on the Stanford campus in 2021 and at a Brentwood high school in 2020, as two examples.

The notion here is that somebody wanted other people to see this and they wanted to deliver a message," said Seth Brysk, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League. "The noose is a very powerful symbol of violence and terror and intimation for the African American community."

Brysk said there have been over one hundred incidents of white supremacy in the Bay Area over the last year and that the incident at American High School has impact on the wider community.

"It’s meant to harass, it’s meant to terrorist, it’s meant to intimidate. It’s being directed at the African American community, but we all must standup and push back against this hate," Brysk told KTVU.

The noose incident at American High School comes one week after President Biden signed a bill that makes lynching a federal hate crime.

Anyone with information can alert School Resource Officer Reggie Candler at rcandler@fremont.gov or 510-790-6900.