A Northern California private school apologized for a lunch menu that offered fried chicken, corn bread and watermelon to celebrate Black History Month.
School administrators for Carondelet High School, an all-girls Catholic school in Concord, Calif., said they did not approve the menu, and it remains unclear who came up with the idea.
In an interview with USA TODAY Network, Carondelet communications director Christina Ditzel also said that the Black Student Union was not to blame. In an earlier report from KTVU, Interim President Sister Ann Bernard said students with the group had planned the menu.
A spokesman for De La Salle High school, an all-boys school affiliated with Carondelet that runs the Black Student Union, reiterated that the group was not responsible.
“I know for a fact they have nothing to do with the menu at Carondelet,” said J.A. Gray, director of communications for De La Salle, in an interview with USA TODAY Network.
According to Ditzel, a student announced the lunch menu over the school’s public address system on Monday.
“It was a shock to the administrators, the students and the teachers, and they were angry about it,” Ditzel said.
