3 years ago
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A group of students at a Washington high school for the deaf scrawled "KKK" and swastikas on a black student's body with a marker while holding him against his will, police said Wednesday. DC Police are investigating the incident Saturday night at the Model Secondary School for the Deaf as a possible hate crime, according to Chief Cathy Lanier. The school is on the campus of Gallaudet University. Seven students took part in holding the black student, six of them white and one black, Lanier said. University officials would not say whether they had been disciplined, but in a campus wide e-mail Wednesday, Katherine Jankowski, dean of the center that includes the high school, said the seven were sent home.
The school held an assembly Monday and has worked with students on issues of diversity and race, said Stephen Weiner, provost of Gallaudet. "We do not tolerate any kind of action, any kind of behavior of this type," Weiner said.
Lanier said the incident began when two groups of students, one white, one black, were "horsing around" in the dorms. The groups eventually separated, but the seven students took the black student and held him for about an hour before letting him go.
Police have identified all seven students involved.
"We take it very seriously," Lanier said.
That student contacted Gallaudet authorities, who called police early Sunday. The student who was held is at home with his family, the provost said. About 170 students attend the Model Secondary School, with roughly 100 living in dorms on campus, Weiner said. It is part of Gallaudet's Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center, which also includes an elementary school. The center works on developing courses and teaching methods for deaf and hard of hearing students.
