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Deaf Teens Probed In Possible Hate Crime

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The Associated Press

Published: October 4, 2007

WASHINGTON - A group of students at a Washington high school for the deaf scrawled 'KKK' and swastikas on a black student's body with a marker while holding him against his will, police said Wednesday.
District of Columbia police are investigating Saturday night's attack as a possible hate crime, Chief Cathy Lanier said. The incident began in the dorms of the Model Secondary School for the Deaf, on the Gallaudet University campus.

Seven students, six white and one black, took part in holding the black student, Lanier said.
University officials would not say whether they had been disciplined, but in a campuswide e-mail Wednesday, Katherine Jankowski, dean of the center that includes the high school, said the seven were sent home.

The school discussed the incident at an assembly Monday and has worked with students on issues of diversity and race, said Stephen Weiner, provost of Gallaudet.

'We do not tolerate any kind of action, any kind of behavior of this type,' Weiner said.

Lanier said the attack began when two groups of students, one white, one black, were 'horsing around' in the dorms. The groups eventually separated, but the seven students took the black student and held him for about an hour.

The student who was held contacted Gallaudet authorities, who called police early Sunday. He is at home with his family, the provost said.

No charges have been filed, but police said they have identified all seven students involved; they range in age from 15 to 19. 'We take it very seriously,' Lanier said.

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