Mother says racism led to sons’ questioning
Native Americans living in N.M. were on campus tour in Colorado when police pulled them aside
Lorraine Kahneratokwas Gray is outraged that her teenage sons were stopped by campus police and patted down during a college tour in Colorado earlier this week — and she’s certain the incident was rooted in racism. But she feels blessed, Gray said, that her boys did not get shot.
According to an email from officials at Colorado State University, the mother of another prospective student in the tour group had called police to report suspicions about the brothers, Native American teens who live in the village of Santa Cruz, just east of Española.
The reason for the woman’s call? Gray said she was told it was because her boys had been quiet as they walked with the group around the CSU campus.
Her sons, 19-year-old Thomas Kanewakeron Gray, a student at Northern New Mexico College in Española, and 17-year-old Lloyd Skanahwati Gray, a senior at the Santa Fe Indian School, had driven seven hours from their home to Fort Collins, Colo., for a Monday tour of CSU because both considered enrolling there. Their mother stayed behind. The pair got off to a bad start. They had scheduled a 2 p.m. tour, Lorraine Gray said, and because they weren’t familiar with the CSU campus, they got lost.
They were 20 minutes late joining their
tour group.
About 20 minutes after that, Gray told The New Mexican, her son Thomas called and said, “Somebody called the police on us because we were quiet.”
“I said, ‘What are you talking about? That’s crazy! Why would someone do that?’ … I know immediately they were victims of bias and prejudice,” Gray said.
She described her sons as teens who like to express themselves through contemporary music and traditional songs. The family is Mohawk and lived in upstate New York before moving to New Mexico.
Her sons declined to speak with reporters about the incident. Gray relayed what they had told her about the experience.
“They were both patted down,” she said. “The police officer told one of my sons to empty his pockets, and then when he tried to put his hands in his pocket, the officer said, ‘Don’t put your hands in your pocket.’
“I know from watching television news broadcasts that that is a very easy way for a young man to get shot and killed by an officer.”
The campus officer began questioning the brothers about their reasons for being on campus, Gray said.
Fortunately, one of her sons had an email message on his cellphone confirming their reservations for the tour, and after the officer read it, he let them go.
By then, however, their tour group was long gone.
The teens got something to eat and then drove home, arriving around 1 a.m. Tuesday. But the damage had been done.
“Imagine being a 17-year-old and visiting the college of your dreams, and suddenly you were being yelled at by a police officer and told to keep your hands out of your pocket,” Gray said. “It breaks my heart.”
She said CSU officials, in the apologetic email, said the tour guide did not know police had been called and wasn’t even aware that officers had responded and questioned her sons.
“The incident is sad and frustrating from nearly every angle, particularly the experience of two students who were here to see if this was a good fit for them as an institution,” the email said. “As a university community, we deeply regret the experience of these students while they were guests on our campus.”
The tour guide also sent her an email apologizing about the incident, Gray said.
School officials said they were reviewing what happened that day so they could avoid similar incidents or handle such issues more appropriately in the future.
She understands that the college cannot “control people’s thoughts and beliefs,” Gray said, referring to the parent who had placed the call to police. But she was upset that the campus officer did not speak with the tour guide before questioning her sons.
And she was baffled by the tour guide’s obliviousness: “How could you not notice a police officer coming up to your group and taking away two people?”
Other colleges have sent her emails saying that as a result of the incident involving her sons, they are reviewing their own policies on campus “so something like this doesn’t happen there,” Gray said. “So my sons are already making a difference.”
And Thomas is still considering attending Colorado State, she said.
“He told me, ‘Maybe this is the place for me. Maybe it is my place in life to educate and enlighten people with this experience.’ ”