Racist Shawnee Mission East Update: Felony Charges Filed

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The white Shawnee Mission East Excessive College scholar who went viral this week after being caught on digital camera hurling racial slurs at a Black scholar earlier than bodily attacking her is now charged with felony aggravated battery, and, unsurprisingly, that cost just isn’t the primary felony the racist teen has been charged with.

As we beforehand reported, on Monday, college students at Shawnee staged a walkout as a result of they didn’t really feel the white male scholar—who clearly began the struggle and was clearly motivated by racism—acquired a adequate punishment from directors on the faculty, which they declare has a protracted historical past of college officers ignoring rampant anti-Black racism. Based on the Kansas Metropolis Star, roughly 100 college students participated within the protest. A lot of these college students declare the Black lady who was solely defending herself additionally obtained suspended behind the struggle.

“That younger girl was the sufferer of a hate crime, and it ought to be handled as such,” stated Anisha Jackson, a mother or father of a former Shawnee Mission scholar who has been energetic in difficult the district to handle and appropriately punish racism in opposition to Black college students. “She was defending herself basically, from movies I noticed, as she was being assaulted. I’m undecided why she obtained suspended.”

Kansas Metropolis’s Black Pupil Solidarity Community, a youth-led group supporting college students in Kansas and Missouri, echoed the identical sentiments whereas calling on the district to expel the white scholar and situation an apology for suspending his sufferer.

“Black college students will need to have the suitable to defend themselves with out worry of unjust punishment,” the group wrote in a press release.

For the file, district officers haven’t confirmed what punishment both scholar has confronted, if any.

“Whereas we can’t share particular details about the incident or the District’s response, the District needs to reassure the group it takes proactive measures to create a protected instructional setting the place each scholar feels a way of belonging. This consists of intensive work to help range, fairness, and inclusion,” district spokesman David Smith stated in an emailed assertion. “Sadly, youngsters make huge and small errors each day. We are going to proceed to answer these errors in an equitable and constant method, and our efforts to teach our college students about deal with one another can be ongoing.”

In the meantime, Johnson County District Court docket data present that the white scholar, 15, was additionally charged with two felonies and a misdemeanor in a separate case from June. These expenses embody aggravated battery, aggravated assault and battery. It’s unclear what occurred in that case, however on Wednesday, an emergency overview listening to was known as and the teenager was ordered to be held in custody.

It’s additionally unclear what the boy’s punishments can be if convicted in both case, however hopefully, they mirror the claims usually made by faculty districts and authorized officers that racism and violence should not acceptable.