'Racist' Text Messages at Ottoson Fabricated: Police

Arlington, MA — Racist text messages allegedly sent between students at Ottoson Middle School were fabricated, an investigation revealed.

Arlington Police Department and Superintendent Kathleen Bodie said in a joint press release on July 6 that the messages had been fabricated. The release also indicated that the student who claimed to receive the hateful messages had "created the narrative and fabricated the story."

Like Arlington Patch on Facebook!

“The allegation of racist texts being sent from one middle school student to another was concerning and hurtful to the entire community and I am disappointed that a student would falsify a report of this nature,” Bodie said in the release. “Thank you to the Arlington Police Department for its full and thorough investigation.”

Police say no charges have been filed but that they are working with the school department to determine appropriate corrective action for the student.

On June 28, police began an investigation into allegations that a sixth grade student at Ottoson Middle School sent racially offensive text messages to one student about another student.

“We took this matter seriously,” Ryan said. “We’re happy to have been able to bring it to a quick resolution.”

On March 17, Ottoson administrators found racist and anti-Semitic graffiti in two school bathrooms. A second such instance of graffiti was found in April within 30 days of the previous incident.