Student charged with cyber-bullying over racist Snapchats
HOPEWELL TOWNSHIP >> A white high school student who sent racist Snapchat messages joking about lynching people and calling a black classmate a “monkey” was charged with cyber-bullying, authorities said Wednesday.
The name of the 16-yearold Hopewell Valley Central High School student was withheld by police because he is underage.
The case is being handled in family court after township Detective Alexis Mirra drew up the juvenile complaint Dec. 20, a day after The Trentonian reported the racially charged incident that has led to increased scrutiny of race relations at the mostly white high school that was previously the focus of racial discord over a decision to serve stereotypical foods in honor of Black History Month.
Even though it happened outside of school, the teenager was suspended after sending Snapchat messages to a group of friends that targeted his African-American classmate, Azikiwe Kemit, also a junior at the township high school.
“I think that charging him was the proper thing to do,” said Baye Kemit, Azikiwe’s father. “The act was a thoughtless act. I’m not wishing nothing on him other than that he be accountable for his actions. I’m not that heinous or malicious or vicious. But I do want him to learn his lesson.”
Last month, Baye Kemit Screenshots of a Hopewell Valley High School student’s racially charged Snapchat messages.
shared screenshots of the racist messages on his Facebook page.
The post went viral, attracting attention from the Trenton NAACP and the media.
The student was suspended as school officials vowed to increase “equity and cultural competency in our schools.”
Police investigated the incident as a “bias” crime and brought charges against the teen three days after it was first reported Dec. 17.
Baye Kemit said he shared the messages to expose the hate his son and other black classmates have Baye Kemit said a Hopewell Valley high school student was talking about his son when he sent this Snapchat message to a group of friends.
consistently experienced while attending classes the township high school.
The white teen’s messages included selfies — one with him wearing a dark hoodie and glasses — with slurs like, “Sup n—? Who wants to be lynched?’ “F—k n—” and “n—s.”
In one of the messages, the teen specifically mentioned Azikiwe Kemit, writing “Azikewe is a monkey” over a picture of a television screen. Underneath, the teen wrote, “I love this show.”
Azikiwe Kemit previously told The Trentonian that his friend showed him another screen shot of a conversation in which the white student suggested he “can maybe pick my cotton for me.”
Azikiwe Kemit, who received According to this screengrab, this teen sent out a Snapchat asking friends who wanted to get “lynched.”
an outpouring of support after going public with his story, said Monday he felt his classmate got “what he deserved.”
“You can’t do certain things. You can’t be racist like that,” he said. “You can’t put people down in that way. Hopefully, he will never do that again in his life.”
Azikiwe Kemit felt the publicity around the racially charged episode forced the school to take the issue seriously whereas administrators had been reluctant to confront past racial instances over alleged lack of proof.
“I feel like with certain things like that you have to go public with it. I think the publicity has caused some of the change,” he said. “It would have never went anywhere. They’re under a lot of pressure.”
Baye Kemit said school officials initially asked him to “tone down” the tenor of his Facebook posts, which also irked the white student’s father.
He said the student’s father contacted him to try to protect his son, insisting he wasn’t racist. He felt the dad’s reaction was tonedeaf.
“If my son was a perpetrator, the very first thing I would do is try to show some level of humbleness and sincerity to the child,” Baye Kemit said. “He didn’t do that. The first thing was about his son. He wasn’t concerned about my son. That kept me on the course that I was going.”
While he said his son received “overwhelming support” online and in the community, some people’s reactions made him second-guess the decision to go public.
“I’ve had some second thoughts because when you go public like that you turn over some stones and get people talking. Some people have good things to say. Some people have bad things to say. It’s a Catch 22. You’re going up against an institution, a white institution.”
In the end, both dad and son felt they made the right call to expose the situation hoping it leads to improvements at the school.
“I’m happy I did what I did,” Baye Kemit said. “You have to do it and leave it up to the ancestors that they’re going to protect you.”
“People can be really cruel behind closed doors. People knew it was going on and it was going on for a while,” said Azikiwe Kemit, who hopes to start a club on campus dedicated to minority issues. “Martin Luther King [Jr.] never stopped when he was called racial slurs. That never stopped their movement and what they stood for.”