An 11-year-old white girl from New York has been charged with a hate crime after a parent of an African-American girl claimed her daughter was racially abused and beaten by the girl on a school bus.
On September 10, 2019, the New York Police received a complaint from the parent of the black girl who said her daughter was brutally beaten and racially abused by an 11-year-old white girl.
The parent described her daughter’s injuries, the girl had a black-eye after being punched in the face, hair being pulled out, and a bruise on her knee after the girl fell.
An 11-year-old girl and a 10-year-old white girl, who are students of the Gouverneur Middle School in Upstate New York, were held responsible for the attack.
The girls are charged with second-degree harassment and the 11-year-old was additionally charged with 3rd-degree assault as a hate crime.
The case will be handled in a family court in New York.
Tiffany Spicer, a 28-year-old bus monitor, watched the assault take place and did not step in to prevent the attack from happening.
Tiffany is currently charged with 3 counts of endangering the welfare of a child.
Lauren French, the superintendent of the Gouverneur Central School District said, “It is probably the most professionally devastating event since I started working at Gouverneur in 1984.”
French asked, “How do we become better out of this? How do we treat everyone better?”
French said they have reached out to a number of resources so they could provide additional training to their staff.
The resources will provide additional support, recognition, conversation, and training to their student body.
Authorities did not share the health condition of the girl who was injured in the attack.