Baldwin, Wis., student disciplined for presenting classmate with noose, KKK symbol

[question everything]

A high school in Baldwin, Wis., has suspended a ninth-grade student for giving a miniature noose and "KKK symbol" to a black classmate. Eric Russell, principal of Baldwin-Woodville High School, said he suspended the boy Dec. 14 after he confessed to placing the offensive items on the desk of the classmate, whose foster mother said she is 15 years old and one of only three black students in the 450-student school... The young man said it was done as a joke."

But it wasn't a joke to the black student and her family, said her foster mother, Sarah Hitzeman, who, with her husband, is in the process of adopting the teen. "She has been experiencing racial comments since joining our family her eighth-grade year," Hitzeman wrote in an e-mail sent to an advocate for disadvantaged youth. "Her freshman year started out with students calling her 'Big Mocha' and making fun of her hair and breasts.".. Hitzeman said she later learned that the school initially gave the boy in-school suspension for one day, but changed it to an out-of-school suspension after the school was contacted by a NAACP representative whom Hitzeman had contacted.

(snip)

Fred Friedman, the longtime chief public defender for northeastern Minnesota, said he learned of the noose incident through contacts in the Duluth-Superior child advocacy network and was so disturbed that he wrote to the U.S. attorney for western Wisconsin. He said he also tried on Christmas Eve to report it to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction but could not reach any officials there because of slim holiday staffing. Media relations officials for both offices were on vacation this week, and neither responded to requests for comment.

According to the latest census, the sister communities of Baldwin, population 4,000, and Woodville, population 1,300, are about 96 percent white. Blacks, American Indians and Asian-Americans each make up less than 1 percent of Baldwin's inhabitants, and Hispanics or Latinos account for 1.6 percent, according to the figures.

(snip)

Hitzeman said that other students, after hearing of the boy's suspension, have criticized her foster daughter, saying she overreacted to a joke. Hitzeman said she wants school officials to lay down the law to students and teachers, telling them that the school won't tolerate race-based harassment of any kind and will come down hard on anyone who harasses someone for reporting it.

(snip)

http://www.startribune.com/local/east/185111861.html

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How does a 13 year old boy even know of KKK and a noose as offensive symbols? Who introduced him to this?

[Lifelong Protester]

1. I agree with the principal

and am tired of crap like this being rationalized as "a joke". It is NO JOKE.

And I quite agree with your last statement, how DOES a 13 year old know about the KKK and a noose as offensive symbols? A student may have seen or heard of these terms/items in a history class, but most 13 year olds are not going to put that together as an idea to torment a fellow student, IMHO.

[Liberal_in_LA]

6. +1

[surrealAmerican]

2. While I do think a high school freshman should know ...

... what these symbols mean, I think there needs to be some follow-up with this kid's parents. Something has gone very wrong at home for him to think this would be "a joke".

[L0oniX]

3. No not the parrents. It must be some old movie with the KKK in it that taught him that.

[Wellstone ruled]

4. Did I remind you folks some time back about

these White wanna be skinhead families. Yes I did,grew up in this area,yes,this is just the next generation. It's just plain ignorance and generations of hate. BTW,this is Marcus Bachnman's hometown. Just some more angry white people acting out their hatred. Don't expect any Law enforcement to intervene,they are part and parcel of the hate problem.

[madrchsod]

5. outside of urban centers wisconsin is pretty much backwoods

[question everything]

7. I think this is true for California, Illinois and New York

You have the urban centers and the university cities where people at least think. The rest of the states people react, even when they don't know to what they react.

Recently I read New York Democrats in the legislative bodies refer to as troglodytes. Don't know why.

[Berserker]

9. And day drink

like fish ya no and ware dohs cheese hats and choppers.

[Berserker]

8. I lived only a few miles from Baldwin

That area is a cluster of republican assholes and a few skin heads. Not saying that the family of the student that did this is either but thought I would add it.

[sillyme1996]

10. Let's not give the principal too much credit

he had no intention of doing anything until his phone started ringing. The black student is my foster granddaughter so I know what happened. Beyond being upset with the boy (actually a sophomore) for an act of stupidity and ignorance, I'm appalled that the THREE staff members who were in the classroom at the time of the incident have denied any knowledge of it happening. They didn't see their student create a KKK hat out of paper and markers, create a noose from hemp, put the hat on, walk to the girl's desk and place the noose in front of her. No one came to her defense, no one stood up for her. This has been devastating to my daughter's family, but the boy's family is suffering, too. They have reached out to my daughter and hopefully the 2 families will find a way to heal together.