Family wants teen charged with hate crime after attack at a Charlotte high school
CHARLOTTE, NC – Family and activists are demanding hate crime charges after they say a 15-year-old girl was assaulted by another teenage student in a classroom at Ardrey Kell High School on Friday.
A spokesman for the family says the male student physically attacked the girl, called her racial slur and told her to “go back to her country.”
Jibril Hough, activist and advocate for the local Muslim community says the violent altercation between the girl and the boy was motivated by Islamophobia.
“The intent was to attack a young Muslim girl, first, because we’re headscarved, and then telling her to go back to her own country, that clearly shows you he’s after her because she’s Muslim and of Arab descent and that that proves the intent and the force behind it,” Hough said.
Hough says the boy hit the girl multiple times leaving her with broken bones and a black eye. Hough says the girl may have a concussion.
“I honestly feel like if this young man hit her two or three more times, he could have killed her because he is a lot bigger than her. He fought her like she stole something,” Hough said.
The female student was born in America and she is a part of the Islamic community. Hough says this is a hate crime because of the words used in the attack, but it’s not a typical case.
“It’s an African American young man so that makes it even more important to pursue the hate crime to point out the fact that anyone can be Islamophobic, anyone can have these feelings, Black or white,” Hough said.
Hough said since the attack, the girl has been getting a lot of support from her peers. Hough says the attacker is on the football team, and even football players have been offering their words of encouragement.
In a statement to WCCB, a spokeswoman for Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools says they are aware of the incident and they say all policies were followed. The family says the alleged attacker was suspended 10 days and they say the victim is also facing a 10 day suspension.
