An 11-year-old white girl is being charged with a hate crime after a 10-year-old African-American girl was subjected to a black eye and “racially motivated language.”
On Monday, police said three girls were involved in the assault on a school bus in Gouverneur, New York, about 100 miles north of Syracuse. Two of the girls were white, and the victim was Black.
The 10-year-old’s parents reported the incident to police on September 10, stating their daughter had a black eye, some of her hair had been pulled out and her knee was bruised after falling into the school bus seat.
After a police investigation, the two white girls, ages 10 and 11, were arrested Monday and charged with one count of second-degree aggravated harassment, according to CNN.
The eldest girl also was charged with assault and a third-degree hate crime; the hate crime charge is a felony said Gouverneur police Sgt. Darren Fairbanks.
“It’s not very often that we charge a hate crime in the village of Gouverneur,” Fairbanks told the publication.
The parents of the two girls were referred to St. Lawrence County Probation for further action, and their cases will be handled in juvenile court.
The St. Lawrence County District Attorney, Gary Pasqua, shared his office does not prosecute anyone under the age of 13 in this kind of case, clarifying those circumstances generally go to a family court. “The hate crime elevates the underlying offense,” he said of such charges. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Reports say the bus monitor, a 28-year-old woman, was also charged with three counts endangering the welfare of a child because police said she witnessed the assault, however, “did not make an effort to stop and/or prevent said behavior.”
The superintendent of the Gouverneur Central School District, Lauren French, told WWNY that the incident “is probably the most professionally devastating event since I started working at Gouverneur in 1984.”
“I firmly believe we are better than this,” French said, “and we have to take a stand.”
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