White teen charged with hate crime for putting noose around Black student’s neck

Sep 25, 2018

A white teen in Louisiana was jailed and charged with a hate crime after wrapping a noose around the neck of a Black student the News Star reports.

—Family pays tribute to Botham Jean as he’s laid to rest in native St. Lucia—

The teen’s name is being protected because he’s a juvenile, but the family of the victim spoke out to The Monroe Free Press after the horrifying ordeal.

According to a victim statement, the Black teen’s classmate put the noose around his neck and reportedly had plans to do the same thing to as many Black classmates as he could and to take pictures.

On Sept. 14, when a teacher asked the white boy why he would do such a thing, he replied saying that he wanted to do it for a photo op.

The Ouachita Parish boy was taken to Green Oaks Juvenile Detention Center but has since bonded out. He was charged with simple battery along with a hate crime.

But even that was a fight for the family, the victim’s mother said. Initially, the white teen only received a 10-day suspension from his school until the family pressed for more charges and ultimately expulsion.

Superintendent Don Coker confirmed that the white student received discipline, but said he could not comment on specifics because of the student privacy.

—Psychologist says Bill Cosby deserves ‘sexually violent predator’ label—

Are schools safe places or racist places?

It remains to be seen if the white student will learn his lesson before he heads to college. It seems that it’s a never-ending occurrence on college campuses with white students getting in trouble for racist incidents.

The University of New Mexico is investigating racist comments allegedly made by a sorority member during a Greek life event for new members, according to KRGE News.

Students who were at the welcome meeting say the comments mocked the African-American speaker and came from Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority members sitting behind them, the report said.

“I think a lot of them were sad and frustrated,” Brandi Stone with UNM’s African American Student Services, told the television news outlet.”Essentially, it came down to not feeling safe around Black people.”

In a statement from the Black Student Alliance, the students said they heard KKG members say: “Black people get away from me,” and “Black people stop wearing grills.”

“That’s wrong, it shouldn’t have happened, period,” said UNM student Keith Flynn.

“It’s very small minded of them to say or even think, and it’s pretty brave of them to say that out loud around other people,” said UNM student Dylan Greenhaus. “That’s a rough one for sure.”

Now, according to krqe.com, faculty and students are calling for cultural sensitivity training all around campus.