In a letter sent to parents and students, Cleveland HS principal Ayesha Freeman said, "There is no place for hate speech, bias or discrimination at Cleveland."

PORTLAND, Ore. — Cleveland High School principal Ayesha Freeman sent an email to parents and students on Friday about "an event ... that was harmful to our staff and students of color."

Four days before that, Freeman emailed students and parents to tell them a teacher had discovered "string tied like a noose" hanging from a school entrance, according to the Oregonian.

"We are committed to racial equity and social justice at Cleveland High School and we care deeply about our students and staff," Freeman wrote in the Friday letter. "There is no place for hate speech, bias or discrimination at Cleveland."

On Thursday, a cake baked at the school upset some parents and students, who say the cake and its decorations are a display of blackface.

Brody Kreiter, a senior at the school, wrote a thread on Twitter about the cake. He said it started as a plain chocolate cake, but students in a culinary arts class then decorated the cake with two blue eyes and red lips.

Kreiter was sent a photo of the cake on Snapchat, took a screenshot and posted it to Twitter. He told the Oregonian that even though he's not a person of color, he wanted to do something about it.

"I just believe that certain communities within Cleveland get treated unfairly and I'm sick of it," Kreiter told The Oregonian. "And it's our job as members of those communities to come together and take action."

According to the Oregonian, 69 percent of the students at Cleveland High School are white. Three percent are black.

"We are still gathering facts to determine what happened," Portland Public Schools spokesman Harry Esteve said in a statement sent to KGW. "We want and expect our schools to be places where students feel safe, welcome, included and respected by staff and classmates. Any act of racism, racial insensitivity or discrimination of any sort is completely unacceptable at our schools. Our primary focus in the days ahead is on giving our students any and all supports they need as they begin to heal from this incident."

Freeman, the principal at Cleveland, wrote in the email to parents and students that the school is "working together towards a restorative process to heal our community from the hurt and harm that has been caused by a series of incidents this year."