Six eighth grade students in Massachusetts were charged Thursday with threats to commit a crime after their social media conversation came to light and was deemed racist by local authorities.
A chat on Snapchat involving the Southwick Regional School students turned “hateful” and “racist online” on Feb. 8, according to the Hampden District Attorney’s Office. The six involved began a conversation targeted against two others that involved threats, racial slurs, derogatory images and videos, and a reference to a mock slave auction.
The next day, the chat was brought to the attention of school authorities, who suspended the involved students the following Monday, Feb. 12. Additional students were suspended later that week, with two receiving a 25-day suspension and one student receiving a 45-day suspension.
Since the involved students are underage, details about their identities have been withheld from the public. All six students are facing a juvenile charge of threat to commit a crime, while two other students face an additional charge of interference with civil rights, and another faces a third charge of witness interference.
“Hatred and racism have no place in this community,” Hamden District Attorney Anthony Gulluni said in a statement. “There is no question that the alleged behavior of these six juveniles is vile, cruel, and contemptible. Seeing it, and facing the reality that these thoughts, that this ugliness, can exist within middle school students, here, in this community, in 2024 is discouraging, unsettling, and deeply frustrating.”
Gulluni expressed hope that the charges’ message “that hate and bullying will not be tolerated in this county will deter people from similar behavior.”
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While the Massachusetts State Police Hate Crimes Awareness and Response Team is involved in the investigation, only two of the involved students are facing hate crime-related charges. The team will be deployed at schools in the area to instruct staff on best practices surrounding hate crimes.
Massachusetts saw 477 instances of hate crime in 2022, according to the state’s most recent report. Almost 54% of those crimes were motivated by race, ethnicity, or ancestry. While total hate crimes have slightly increased since last year, the report reflected a decrease in racially motivated crimes.
