Monument police are investigating a report that some Creekside Middle School students donned a hood, chanted “KKK” and taunted a mixed- race schoolmate with racial slurs.
Police have so far issued criminal summonses to three of the school’s students, said Lewis-Palmer School District spokeswoman Robin Adair.
“The principal responded immediately when it happened and notified the police,” Adair said of the March 6 incident.
Monument Police Chief Jacob Shirk said he can’t comment on the allegations until an investigation is completed.
“I am hoping it finishes tonight or tomorrow,” he said Wednesday.
The incident took place during a morning independent study period at the school in Monument, said Alison Clay, the mother of the alleged victim, Kenyan Clay.
“They approached my son with a hood, like a hooded sweat shirt; they were apparently taking turns wearing it. They were chanting ‘KKK’ and calling my son the ‘n’ word repeatedly.”
If the allegations are true, authorities should prosecute under Colorado statutes that bar ethnic intimidation, said James Tucker, former president of the state conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
“If this happened, it is definitely a hate crime. The KKK has promoted hate; that is part of their history,” he said.
The “three or four” boys followed Kenyan into a classroom and continued the harassment.
“My son tackled one of them, the one who was most vocal and closest to him, and at that point one of the teachers intervened,” Alison Clay said.
Kenyan had had trouble with one of the boys in the past. Kenyan received a summons for tackling his tormenter, Alison Clay said. The complaint against each of the three boys is a Class 1 misdemeanor, she added.
She found out that her son had been suspended, along with the other boys, at the end of the school day, she said.
Alison Clay, a retired member of the Air Force, was transferred to Colorado in 2004 from Stuttgart, Germany, she said. The father of her three children is an African-American.
Her kids have been the targets of racial slurs before in El Paso County, she said.
“This is widespread throughout the state because we have legislators and school officials and police officers who refuse to enforce the racial-harassment and ethnic-intimidation law,” Tucker said.
Clay said she won’t pull her son out of the school.
“I have decided to keep him in that school because I don’t think it is right that he has to change schools at this point even though I am not pleased with this environment.”
Tom McGhee: 303-954-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com
