Castle Rock mom says student chat group threatened her son, used racial slurs
By McKenna Harford, Colorado Community Media
A group chat involving Castle Rock Middle School students evolved into bullying with racial slurs and threats that targeted Black and biracial students for months.
Lacey Ganzy told Colorado Community Media that her son, Jeramiah, an eighth grader at the school, was invited by other students to a student group chat on Snapchat in February. Soon after, he received frequent messages using the N-word. Two students threatened violence against Black people.
In addition to the group chat, Jeramiah said a school administrator earlier questioned him recently about a stolen water bottle, insinuating Jeramiah couldn't afford one of his own. His mother considers the insinuation to be racial profiling. Jeramiah added in an interview that students have called him a monkey and the N-word at school.
The messages in the group were bigoted, including one where a student said "bring back the Holocaust," and another threatening violence. Screenshots of the messages were provided to Colorado Community Media by Ganzy.
During Tuesday's special school board meeting, Superintendent Erin Kane told Colorado Community Media that she has spoken to the Ganzy family to address what has happened to Jeramiah.
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This story is from Colorado Community Media. CBS News Colorado is a newsgathering partner with CCM, a network of two dozen newspapers and online publications serving eight metro-area counties on the Front Range.
