A 15-year-old in Louisiana has been charged with a hate crime after a viral video captured him throwing cotton balls at a Black classmate while whipping him with a belt, local authorities reported.
The student, who attends Vanebilt Catholic High School in Houma, Louisiana, can be seen in the 9 March footage approaching his Black classmate in the crowded cafeteria and then begins tossing handfuls of what appears to be cotton balls at him before beginning to whip the teen with a belt.
On 15 March, WWL-TV reported that the offending teen had been arrested and taken to a local juvenile detention centre where he was later charged with simple battery and a hate crime.
In a Facebook post from the Terrebonne Parish Sheriff’s Office published last week, the authorities confirmed they’d met with both students’ parents and that an investigation was also being conducted.
Detectives from TPSO said in the same statement that parents of the victim also met with the school’s administration over what the local authorities described in the post was a racially motivated video.
The attacked teen is one of the few racialised minorities at the Catholic high school, a family friend of the victim told WWL-TV. The teen’s parents, who shared a statement with the same outlet, said they were stunned by the horrific event but hoped that an important lesson could be salvaged from the pains that their son had to suffer.
“We will continue to pray for our school community as a whole, that we not only get through this together but that we each learn a valuable lesson from what has taken place,” the parents said in a statement, WWL-TV reported.
Vanebilt Catholic High School is a private school in Houma and requires all potential students of the school to sit for an interview before gaining admission. It’s one of the only Catholic schools in the local area.
