Posted: 7:19 a.m. Friday, Oct. 10, 2014
Noose found hanging in Berkeley High tree
KTVU.com Staff
By Jana Katsuyama
BERKELEY, Calif. —
A search continued Friday for whoever hung a noose from a tree on the central campus green of Berkeley High School, district officials said.
According to district officials, a safety officer found it October 2nd and reported it to the Berkeley police.
The school staff announced the incident to students Thursday and sent messages by email to parents explaining what had happened.
Some students say they are upset.
"In my opinion I feel angry and at the same time sad," said Asya Keele, a Berkeley High School student. [It’s not a matter of opinion, besides which, I don’t believe you.]
"I think they did say it a little late, because it did happen last week and they just told us now," added sophomore Chloe Stringfellow.
"It should be taken way more serious. They should do a real investigation because that shouldn't be played with," Malik Harrison told KTVU.
[Do you really want an investigation, Malik?]
The school's vice-principal Ashley Milton says the district is taking it seriously. A message to students and their families stated that the staff plan to hold school assemblies and classroom discussions about the noose and its impact on students.
"We are investigating this incident. And, at this time, we've not been able to determine who was responsible for it or the intention behind it," Milton told KTVU.
"Clearly it is a very disturbing event that has happened and one that we are taking very seriously," Milton added.
Berkeley police say the intent is important as investigators determine whether this is a hate crime or something else.
"We don't know if this is some type of prank. We don't know what the intent is," said Berkeley Police spokesman Officer Byron White. "If this does turn out to be some sort of hate incident, it's not something that we tolerate."
What many people might not realize is that California's penal code specifically addresses the issue.
Section 11411 states that: "Any person who hangs a noose" on private property or "on the property of a primary school, junior high school, high school, college campus, public park, or place of employment" could potentially face "imprisonment in a county jail not to exceed one year."
Police say the key to Section 11411 is whether there is intent to terrorize or reckless disregard of terrorizing people.
[Bull. The “key” is whether the person hanging the noose is white. If a white hangs a noose, he’ll get prosecuted to the max; if a black or Hispanic does it, not only will there be no prosecution, but the police will cover it up.]
Some say the noose might symbolize something else entirely.
"I think it's sad cause someone hung themself last year over there," said student Andre Ryan.
Police and school staff say there was a suicide by hanging on campus in the past. It was determined to be a homeless person unrelated to the school.
So "if its some kind of prank," does that mean you do "tolerate" it?
ReplyDeleteDavid In TN
OR the school administration and the local government will say that this is a "teaching moment". It will help us to teach about racism. And YES, most if not the preponderance of those noose hangings are done by minorities just to stir up trouble.
ReplyDelete"I think it's sad cause someone hung themself last year over there,"
ReplyDeleteWhat's sadder is that somebody would say something so stupid. Yes, I'm a grammar nazi. "Because someone hanged himself." Sheesh.
As Joe Sobran pointed out, in 100 years we've gone from teaching Latin and Greek in high school, to teaching remedial English in college.