Mom: Teen son shook in fear after white Miss. schoolmates put noose on him
WIGGINS, Miss. -- A black mother in Mississippi says her 15-year-old son was shaking in fear as he described white schoolmates putting a noose around his neck two weeks ago and pulling it tight.
Stacey Payton told The Associated Press on Thursday that her son bears no physical injury, but she believes the incident has permanently changed him. She said he continues attending classes and playing football at Stone High School in Wiggins. However, he’s quieter than usual, and she said the family fears retaliation for having brought attention to the Oct. 13 incident.
Payton, a college instructor, said her son met her in her office and told her about the noose a couple of hours after it happened in a high school locker room.
“His first words were, ‘Mom ... please stay calm. Don’t panic. I don’t want you to call the school because it’s already been handled,’” Payton said. “When I was looking at him, he was shaking and the expression on his face - he was horrified. He was very fearful.”
She said she was expecting him to say he had received a bad grade or had gotten in trouble for talking in class.
“I sat down and I looked up at him and I said, ‘Son, just lay it on me. Just give it to me,’” she said. “And he said, ‘Mom, they put a noose around my neck and they pulled it tight and it choked me.’ And I just instantly - it was like a chill went over my body.”
The Stone County Sheriff’s Department is investigating. Mississippi NAACP President Derrick Johnson is calling for federal authorities to investigate a possible hate crime. Brett Carr, the FBI spokesman in Mississippi, said the bureau is aware of the incident but he can’t confirm or deny whether agents are investigating.
Johnson said he wants the teenagers charged as adults, as Mississippi law allows in some cases for children older than 13 and younger than 18. Johnson cited federal prosecutions of young people from Rankin County for hate crimes following the 2011 death of a black man run down in the parking lot of Jackson motel as an example of what federal involvement could bring. Most of those people were charged as adults. It turned out in that incident that a group of young white men and women had periodically roamed the city that spring, attacking African-Americans at random, and police either never heard about it or dismissed it.
“There is absolutely a role for federal law enforcement,” Johnson said.
Johnson said Stacey Payton was advised against filing a police report because the father of one of the alleged assailants is a former law enforcement officer. Stone County Sheriff’s Capt. Ray Boggs said he talked to Stacey Payton and that’s not true. He said he told her that pursuing criminal charges could result in hard feelings among students that could make her son’s life more difficult at school.
Stone County Superintendent Inita Owen, in a statement to CBS Biloxi affiliate WLOX-TV, said she wouldn’t “address a matter of student discipline in the press.”
“I can assure everyone that the Stone County School District takes all matters involving students very seriously and will do everything within its power to make sure that all policies and procedures were adhered to and that all of its students have a safe place to receive an education,” Owen said.
WLOX reported that, according to the Stone High Student Handbook, the superintendent has the authority to expel any students who commits an act of violence on campus.
Payton described her son as a peaceful young man and said he was friends with the boys involved, and even called one of them “brother.” The Payton family says up to four white students took part.
The school district’s attorney, Sean Courtney, wrote in an email to AP that only one student was accused of misconduct, according to statements from witnesses and those involved. Courtney said that student has been suspended from school “pending the conclusion of the disciplinary process.” Following district policy, Courtney did not release the student’s name.
Courtney said there was no report of any racially-insensitive language nor any indication of what the motivation may have been.
Payton said administrators should have contacted her immediately instead of waiting about two hours. After her son had already told her what happened, she received a call from an assistant principal, she said.
“He was very emotionless, just presented simple facts that this is what has occurred on campus,” Payton said. “I think just the tone in his voice and the way that he spoke to me just caused a lot of anger to come up.”