12-year-old accused in hate crime allegedly targeting Muslim students at Connecticut middle school
A 12-year-old student faces a hate crime charge for her alleged involvement in an attack on twin Muslim students at their Connecticut middle school, authorities and advocates said. The physical altercation happened earlier this month at Wallace Middle School in Waterbury, Connecticut.
Through a summons to juvenile court, the accused student was charged with intimidation based on bigotry and bias in the first and second degree, according to the Waterbury Police Department.
The March 3 incident happened inside the girls' locker room during a gym period on March 3, said Police said in a statement that investigators probing the March 3 incident "determined that the altercation was motivated by religion and/or ethnicity, meeting the definition of a hate crime." They also said the classification was reviewed and confirmed by the Waterbury State's Attorney's Office.
Another 13-year-old student accused in the altercation was referred to a youth diversionary program instead of being arrested, according to police, "based on her involvement in the incident." Police said their investigation included interviews with students and staff at the school "who were present or otherwise involved" in the incident.
The students' names were not released by authorities.
According to the Connecticut chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations, the students were targeted for wearing hijabs.
CAIR's chair Farhan Memon told CBS News the sisters, who started attending classes at Wallace in October and do not speak fluent English, had faced taunting and threatening behavior from the accused students before.
On the day of the alleged assault, Memon said the accused student grabbed the sisters from behind in the locker room and pulled off their hijabs. One Muslim student was punched in the face and suffered bruises and a black eye. The other emerged from the altercation with a cut across her neck, which apparently came from a sharp object that has not been explicitly identified, according to Memon. CBS News reviewed images of the students' injuries.
Police characterized the twins' injuries as minor. They did not require immediate medical treatment at the scene of the attack, according to police, but CAIR noted in a news release that the injuries were "severe enough to require treatment at a hospital." The organization, which advocates for Muslim civil rights and against Islamophobia in the U.S., called the attack "brutal" in a March 12 post on Facebook.
"The parents of the victims sought CAIR's assistance because they felt that they were not receiving sufficient communication from the school regarding disciplinary actions against the perpetrators or a clear plan to ensure their daughters' safety," the organization said.
The Waterbury Department of Education has now acknowledged the incident as an act of bullying, police said, adding that education officials have "taken disciplinary action, and implemented enhanced school safety measures in response to the incident."
"While this was not part of a widespread problem, this is an opportunity to reaffirm our commitment to ensure our students are safe and respectful of one another," said Darren Schwartz, interim superintendent of Waterbury Public Schools, in a statement.
Memon, however, told CBS News he believes this kind of bullying is a systemic problem in Waterbury and said he has raised that concern with the city's mayor.
"Since this incident, we've heard from many parents of Muslim children in Waterbury who have said that their children too have been bullied," he said. "Cases where women wearing hijab or girls wearing hijab face harassment for that as well."
The Waterbury Police Chief said in a separate statement that his department is committed to taking seriously claims of bias-related incidents, adding the investigation into this one "reaffirms our commitment to maintaining a safe and inclusive school environment."
Spokespeople for the police and education departments in Waterbury directed CBS News to their public statements about the altercation in response to a request for comment and more details.
