A 13-year-old boy accused of using racial slurs to harass a black classmate at Ken Caryl Middle School must face the consequences of his actions, his parents said.
“My son owned up to it,’ his mother said.
The boy, who is not being identified because he is a juvenile, was charged Tuesday with harassing 12-year-old Unique Roland-Irving after she enrolled in the Jefferson County school in January.
“It was heartbreaking. He was looking at me for comfort when he was getting put in handcuffs, but I told him, ‘You did it.’ I said, ‘I can’t cover up for you. You’ve got to own up to your responsibilities.”
The boy said Tuesday that he wrote letters of apology to Unique and her family.
“I told them I was sorry and I didn’t know I offended them and I won’t do it again,’ he said.
Unique’s mother, LaTonya Irving, and the boy’s mother spoke to each other for the first time Tuesday.
“I explained to her they are forgiven in this household,’ Irving said.
The Jefferson County district attorney’s office on Tuesday filed harassment charges against the boy in juvenile court related to ethnic intimidation, spokeswoman Pam Russell said. No other student has been charged.
Unique said that for two months, a small group of students, including the boy, racially harassed her.
In addition to calling her the N-word, students referred to her as a “monkey’ and “blackie-chan’ and told her to go back to Colfax Avenue in Denver.
In one incident, she and her cousin returned to the school cafeteria to find that someone had spit in their sandwiches.
Unique is now being home- schooled, her mother said.
District officials said allegations that a teacher may have used a racial slur toward Unique were unfounded.
The boy who was charged may have been trying to impress his friends, his parents said. His father warned him against making racial comments and showed him a television program on race.
“When he was in elementary school, there was one colored family, and there was no problem then,’ he said.
A trip to juvenile hall, where the boy was fingerprinted and photographed, “was probably a good thing that he did go and experience,’ the father said. “Maybe it’ll teach him to be more respectful of his classmates.’
Staff writer Karen Rouse can be reached at 303-820-1684 or krouse@denverpost.com.
