BOULDER — Two Boulder middle- school students have been arrested on suspicion of harassment and a bias-motivated crime after police said they called a 12-year-old girl and threatened to rape and kill her because she’s Asian-American.
The 13-year-old boys — and a 10-year-old boy, whose arrest was pending — are suspected of calling the girl’s cellphone at 9 p.m. Monday and using explicit and violent language to describe raping her, Boulder police spokeswoman Sarah Huntley said.
The girl hung up, Huntley said, and the boys called back and left two messages threatening her.
“The girl answered the first call, but her parents intercepted the other messages,” Huntley said. “They didn’t pick up the phone, but they listened to the messages and shielded their daughter from hearing them.”
The messages included details about damaging the girl’s genitals, Huntley said.
“In the messages, they indicated that they wanted to have sex with her because she was Asian,” Huntley said. “That is the basis for charging them with a bias-motivated crime.”
The girl’s parents reported the incident to police the next day, Huntley said, and the parents of the two 13-year-olds brought the boys to Boulder County’s juvenile detention center Thursday. It’s unclear whether the teens have been released back to their parents.
When contacted about the suspected phone calls, Huntley said, the teen suspects’ parents said they knew “something was going on” because they had been told by the parent of another child about a sexually explicit phone call. Huntley said it’s unclear whether that was the same call, or involved a second victim.
Huntley said police also intend to arrest the 10-year-old, after initially mistaking his age as 9. According to Colorado law, the juvenile court has jurisdiction over children 10 and older who are suspected of violating federal or state law. An officer didn’t think he could charge the boy because he thought he was 9, Huntley said.
Police aren’t releasing the name of the middle school the students attend because that might help to identify them, Huntley said. Investigators have been working with the Boulder Valley School District, which can take its own disciplinary action.
“I think one of the hopes in filing criminal charges is that if these boys can get support services, the courts can offer that,” Huntley said.
Boulder Valley spokesman Briggs Gamblin said he can’t comment about the investigation or the school’s response, except to say, “We are a district that does not tolerate ethnic or racial intimidation of any kind.”
