A white Kansas teenager has been charged with causing bodily harm after he punched a black female fellow student, breaking her nose.
The 15-year-old boy, who has not been named, has been charged as a juvenile for the November 15 attack at Shawnee Mission East High School, south of Kansas City.
He is caught on camera calling the black girl the ‘n-word’ before beginning to punch her. She then hit him back in self defense.
Both students were suspended – with the girl’s five-day suspension, due to her hitting him back, sparking a walk out of 100 students. They accused the school of punishing the victim.
The boy is now known to be facing separate felony charges, connected to a case in June. He has been charged in that case with two felonies and a misdemeanor, including aggravated battery, aggravated assault and battery, The Kansas City Star reported.
The boy is being held in custody.
At the beginning of the fight, the white student can be seen marching towards the female student and using the N-word repeatedly
The two begin striking each other as he continues to use a racial slur
The fight started when two girls were in a verbal row with the black girl. As she walked away, the boy got involved.
He yells at her: ‘Man, shut the f**k up!’
The black girl turns around, and yells down the hall: ‘Who said that!?’
The male student storms towards the girl, throws his bag to the floor, and physically attacks her, shoving her against a wall.
Despite being at a size disadvantage, she continues to fight back against the assault.
‘He said n****r! He said n****r!,’ the person filming the altercation says repeatedly.
The attack comes to an end when a teacher appears and manhandles the male student, separating the pair.
The gathered students tell the teachers that the white boy threw the first punch.
The female student was hospitalized with a broken nose, reports The Kansas City Star.
Despite being at a size disadvantage, the female student fights back against her attacker
The brawl continues up through the hallway of the school
The gathered students tell the teachers that the white student struck first
On Monday, in protest at the five-day suspension of the girl, 100 students walked out of class holding placards.
‘We demand action! Protect students of color!,’ read one sign.
‘We don’ feel safe’ and ‘Take action now,’ read others.
Chants included: ‘We want change,’ ‘Have our backs,’ and ‘How many more times?’
The newspaper reports that protesters are demanding stronger punishments for the use of racial slurs in schools.
A school district spokesperson told the Star that their office takes ‘incidents of racism and physical violence very seriously. We do have a code of conduct in place, and we follow our policies and procedures.’
The Defender, citing students’ accounts, said that there have been other incidents at the school, including one where the principal called black students ‘intimidating’ and saying that they look like they might ‘jump someone.’
One senior, Charlize Littlejohn, told the Star that racism is ‘ongoing’ at the school.
‘There are multiple situations that have happened over and over again. I think we’re all just really tired of trying to get change and it just not happening,’ said Littlejohn.
‘We’re just exhausted. Trying to go to class, it really affects us.’
The female student was hospitalized with a broken nose, reports The Kansas City Star
According to US News & World Report, 82 percent of students at Shawnee East are white while 1.6 percent are black. Just over five percent identify as mixed race
Littlejohn said that the victim of the attack did not attend the protest on Monday but she drove past and waved at her classmates.
Speaking about the suspension of the white student, Littlejohn said: ‘There was no follow-up, no email was sent, and no announcement was made. It was not recognized.
‘We were all there. We all watched it. It was emotional and it was traumatizing.
‘I want things to change. Everybody who was there watching it, they’re not going to feel safe. I’m not going to feel safe in class.
‘Because that could have been anybody. He could have done it to anybody.
‘And I think that’s just scary something like that can happen inside of a school.’
The brawl sparked a mass walkout at the Kansas school
Students held up signs saying ‘Enough is enough’, and ‘School should feel safe’ in the wake of the attack on the black student
According to US News & World Report, 82 percent of students at Shawnee East are white while 1.6 percent are black. Just over five percent identify as mixed race.
In total, there is a minority enrollment of 18 percent. It is ranked at the second best high school in the state in terms of performance in state-required tests.
A former teacher, David Muhammad, also spoke about the incident, telling the newspaper that students felt ‘vulnerable’ at the school.
‘People don’t talk about this stuff because they don’t feel equipped to have a conversation,’ he said.
‘The reality is you have these students who are looking to teachers and administrators to be the educated ones in the room to guide them in these situations.
‘They’re in a vulnerable state. You can’t fix that just by saying we have a mission that everyone belongs here and we expect people to carry themselves in a certain way.
‘It doesn’t work. There has to be a commitment to figuring out what’s really going on,’ he said.
In 2021, a video of Muhammad hosting a discussion among students at the school about the merits of the confederate flag went viral.