‘We must lynch her’: Black student’s family claims school refuses to punish teens for racist threat

A racist lynching threat to a black high school student in New York State has her family calling for more stringent measures against the perpetrators


 

An upstate New York teen is speaking out after a classmate allegedly targeted her with a racist threat on social media.

On Thursday, Minisink Valley High School student N’Senga Kinzonzi, held an emotional press conference to recount what it felt like to see a photo of herself posted by a classmate with the caption that read, “We must lynch her,” according to NBC New York.

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To add insult to injury, Kinzonzi’s family claims that the school has yet to take any serious action towards disciplining the student who posted the racially charged picture on Snapchat.

“This was a threat made on her life, and there was a call for others to participate in this,” explains her mother, Nicole Kinzonzi. “The caption said ‘we’ must lynch her.”

Her grandmother, Drusilla Kinzonzi, is also questioning if the school is doing enough to educate students about the history of black Americans being lynched in the South.

“If we’re not teaching all of American history, we are not teaching,” she said.

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“I thought maybe he doesn’t know the history,” the sophomore said echoing her grandmother’s sentiments. “I thought I’d take an educational approach and inform the student about the history behind this hurtful caption.”

The family has hired civil rights attorney Michael Sussman and is scheduled to meet with the school’s superintendent on Monday.

“As painful as it is, we have to demand resolutions because we keep coming back to the same place,” said Sussman.

In a statement last month, the district clarified it has no tolerance for hateful language or conduct that endangers the physical or emotional sense of security for students, and agreed that there should be consequences.

“I want to be the last person in Minisink, in Orange County, in New York, to ever have to go through this,” said Kinzonzi.

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