BIGOT BEEF ON CAMPUS
A COUPLE of Native American teens had their college tour in Colorado cut short by police after one of the parents called 911 because the young men made her nervous.
Brothers Thomas Kanewakeron Gray, 19, and his brother Lloyd Skanahwati Gray, 17, had shown up late wearing heavy metal T-shirts at a Colorado State University tour last Monday.
One of the moms on the tour called the cops after she got freaked out by the reticent teens who refused to answer her questions.
“They are not, definitely not, a part of the tour,” she’s heard on a recording of the call. “And their behavior is just really odd. And I’ve never called, ever, about anybody. But they joined our tour. They won’t give their names.”
Body-camera footage released Friday by the Fort Collins school shows two police officers searching the teens’ pockets and grilling the boys on why they were there. Thomas said the officers’ questioning was aggressive.
The college prospects became separated from the rest of the tour group, which had concluded by the time they were finished with police.
The teens’ mother called campus police and said she felt her kids were being racially profiled.
The episode has become yet another example of the divisive social divide in America.
“I think it’s pretty discriminatory,” Thomas said Thursday. “Me and my brother just stayed to ourselves the whole time. I guess that was scaring people; that we were just quiet.”
The brothers had saved until they had enough money to drive the seven hours from the family’s home in New Mexico to Fort Collins for the tour.
University president Tony Frank was apologetic, offering to refund the money they had spent to get to Monday’s tour.
“The very idea that someone — anyone — might ‘look’ like they don’t belong on a CSU Admissions tour is anathema," Frank wrote Friday to students and staff. “People of all races, gender identities, orientations, cultures, religions, heritages, and appearances belong here.”
The video shows them walking in a group and down a set of stairs when an officer approaches and directs them to step aside. He tells them that they are going to check the teens’ pockets.
The younger brother has his hands in his pockets, and is asked to take them out. “The reason we stopped you and talked to you is because someone from the group called and said you guys just kind of came into the group,” the officer said. “They also said they tried to ask you guys questions and you didn’t want to answer questions.”
Thomas explained that they had arrived late for the tour and that his younger brother is shy. The younger teen can be seen offering to track down the email confirming their tour reservations.
“Yeah, yeah, do that, and then we’ll get you out of here,” the officer said.
Another officer adds: “People were just worried because you guys were real quiet and they didn’t know who you were because you guys didn’t show up with parents or any of that stuff.”
The parent who called police described the teens’ clothing as having a “weird symbolism or wording on it.” At least one of the brothers was wearing a T-shirt of a death metal band called Cattle Decapitation.
“What do their clothes have to do with anything? Why would you be worried about a person’s clothes?" the teens’ mother, Lorraine Gray, said.
The family has received apologetic messages from the university but the mom says the family is not ready to respond, given that they have not had the opportunity to fully discuss what happened.