Five black children who attend Lyons Creek Middle School in Broward County, Fla., are being charged with hate crimes after assaulting several white students.
The incident happened Wednesday morning at the Coconut Creek Recreation Center, just a short distance from Lyons Creek Middle School. At least one of the victims was targeted because of his race, according to police.
The arrest reports from Coconut Creek Police stated the victims were “racially profiled.” According to the reports, the students told police that the other students approached them, yelling, “It’s opposite day!” and “brown power!”
“The group looked at (the student) and stated “he is white” before another student “tackled him to the ground which subsequently allowed the group of middle school kids to start hitting him with their hands, feet and phone chargers,” the reports said.
One student said he was attacked after he was dropped off at the center before classes. He told NBC 6 that a group of guys from his school ran over to “jump” him and another group of students.
The attackers hit and kicked him, and yelled things that made him believe that he was being targeted because he is white, the student said.
“I put my hands up so they don’t whack my face,” the student who was dropped off said. “After they jumped me, they said this is, like, revenge for what they did in the 1700s for slavery.”
Broward County Public Schools said in a statement that this was an off-campus incident that police and fire responded to. The principal of the school sounded out a robocall to make parents aware of the incident, saying they are always working to provide a safe and secure learning environment and will work to ensure that any off-campus incidents do not impact students at the middle school.
“They can’t do anything to the other kids because it didn’t happen on school property,” said Frank Foster, who said his kid was attacked. “He wants to go back to school there because all of his friends are there, but he doesn’t feel safe. There’s an opportunity to move out, but that seems like a punishment.”
If you were told day after day that white people are responsible for your economic circumstances and have oppressed you and all black people for 350 years, how happy would you be about seeing any white person?
The notion that teaching critical race theory isn’t harmful is absurd on its face. And even if these black kids were not directly exposed to CRT, they almost certainly have been made aware of its tenets by popular culture.
Putting aside the question of whether there should be “hate crimes” at all, teaching black kids that whites are their oppressors doesn’t lead to peace and harmony in the classroom.
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