During the Latine Heritage Month Mercado that was held on Oct. 14 during lunch at Tamalpais High School, there was a racist incident regarding the food served.

It was reported that several alleged Tam freshmen students were disruptful at the Latine Unidos event, who were pushing and cutting in line. Several students were seen to have started throwing food around during the event. 

“I saw a white student go up to the market and, as he was being served tamarindo agua fresca, he was saying this looks like sewer water which is incredibly disrespectful to say about someone’s food, especially since Latinos Unidos made the Aguas Frescas themselves,” Commissioner of Activism Ella Clark said.

“The second thing I heard was a few white kids saying, ‘Ew, this is so Mexican,’ about the event as a whole, which is super racist to lump all of the nationalities we were celebrating to assume all the food/music was Mexican,” she said. Clark said they also had Haitian cuisine and Mayan Cuisine, not just Mexican food.

“It wasn’t just Mexican music, it was also Latine artists from a variety of different countries,” Clark said. 

“[T]he school did a thorough investigation of this incident,” Nathan Bernstein, dean of student services, said. “[T]he admin took this incident very seriously and followed up immediately.”

Bernstein said he is unable to provide details of the consequences.

Correction: this article has been updated with information regarding Tamalpais High School’s administration’s actions to address the incident.