Activists demand DA investigate Muslim student assault

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An Ardrey Kell High School student presented facial swelling and a laceration over her eye after a violent confrontation March 7 with a classmate on campus. The beaten student, a Muslim girl who sustained broken bones in her face, reported her Black male classmate, used a racial epithet and told her to "go back to her country," according to family spokesman Jibril Hough. Charlotte-Mecklenburg NAACP President the Rev. Corinne Mack, said the boy and his family have been threatened and their home vandalized since the confrontation.

A national civil rights group wants Mecklenburg County District Attorney Spencer Merriweather to reopen an investigation into an assault Ardrey Kell High School that left a student badly beaten.

The North Carolina office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations joined Charlotte activists in demanding a probe into the March 7 incident in which a female Muslim student was allegedly beaten by a Black male classmate. Charlotte-Mecklenburg police determined there wasn’t enough evidence to support claims of a hate crime. The victim’s family contend she was never interviewed by law enforcement and school officials didn’t respond to her complaints about bullying and anti-Muslim slurs before the attack.

The girl, who is 15, suffered broken bones and deep lacerations to her face. The boy is also 15.

"We call on the Mecklenburg County District Attorney to thoroughly and independently investigate this alleged brutal attack on a defenseless Muslim girl at her school,” CAIR-North Carolina said in a statement. “There is no excuse for the brutal nature of the attack on this student, and hate must be thoroughly investigated as a potential motive for the extent of this brutality."

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg NAACP is pushing for greater clarity and lowering tensions between Charlotte’s Black and Muslim communities. The civil rights group has cited death threats against the Black student’s family and defacing his home, which led to the assignment of a police detail. 

“We do not condone violence of any kind and are deeply concerned about the continual false narratives being expressed regarding the incident,” NAACP chapter President the Rev. Corine Mack said in a statement.

CAIR said it is in direct contact with the victim’s family, who said school video footage the school has shown her father and brother contradicts law enforcement’s claim of a fight between the students. Both students were suspended. The victim’s family claims the video shows the alleged perpetrator chasing the victim into the hallway and beating her. The school has not publicly released the footage.

“We are deeply concerned by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department's claim that there was ‘no evidence’ to support a hate crime charge related to this brutal attack despite the fact that investigators never interviewed the victim, who has alleged that the football player who hospitalized her had a history of anti-Muslim bullying,” CAIR-North Carolin’s statement read. “Her testimony would constitute evidence, so law enforcement's claim that there was no evidence is blatantly false. The police department’s insufficient and incompetent investigation cannot stand.” 

CAIR-North Carolina demands Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools make all video of the incident available for public and law enforcement review.

"We also call on the school district to immediately release any and all footage of the attack, including hallway footage which allegedly shows the perpetrator pursuing and attacking the victim as she attempted to flee outside of her classroom,” the statement read. “The school must not conceal footage which may show that its description of the incident as a fight to be untrue. The school must release this video footage, cooperate with law enforcement, and desist in its suppression of evidence in order to protect their own reputation."

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