ACLU demands CSU revise policies

Two Native brothers’ rights violated, it says

An attorney for two Native American brothers pulled from a Colorado State University tour earlier this year has demanded the school make policy changes, saying Thursday that campus officers violated the teens’ constitutional rights by patting them down without any suspicion of a crime.

A letter from American Civil Liberties Union attorney Sarah Hinger calls for the university to revisit its campus police policies and training to avoid another situation like the April 30 encounter, which resulted in the teens being “humiliated, scared, and literally marginalized.”

Police video shows two officers stopping Thomas Kanewakeron Gray and Lloyd Skanahwati Gray of Santa Cruz — who were then 19 and 17, respectively — during a group admissions tour and checking their pockets. The brothers from New Mexico had called the school their top choice.

Police said a mother on the tour had called 911, saying she was worried because the Grays were “real quiet” and wore dark clothing.

“My boys were publicly humiliated and told that their looks alone make them suspicious characters,” mother Lorraine Kahneratokwa Gray said in a statement. “We are all disappointed, not only with CSU’s meager response, but also with their false promises to right this wrong.”

A university spokesman said in an email that the school was consulting with Native American students and faculty to make the campus in Fort Collins more welcoming, and that campus police are required to complete anti-bias training.

“Since some time has passed and the world is focusing on new cases of bias, CSU thinks the world has forgotten my boys and they can now sweep their transgressions under the rug,” Lorraine Gray added in a text to a Journal reporter.”

The ACLU wants the university’s president to order additional training and a review of policies dictating how officers and dispatchers respond to “bias based” reports on campus.

The Gray brothers’ encounter with officers ignited shock and outrage nationwide, as one of numerous examples of racial profiling to make headlines this year. But Colorado State University has taken only “small steps” after promises to change protocols for campus tours, the ACLU said.

EDDIE MOORE/JOURNAL Thomas Gray, who is 19, along with his mother Lorraine Gray speak at a news conference in May about Thomas and his brother being pulled off a campus tour at Colorado State University.