A freshman at Naperville Central High School has been charged with two counts of felony hate crime and one count of misdemeanor disorderly conduct for a racist post online.
The 14-year-old white male student is accused of posting an ad on Craigslist with the photo of another student that reads “Slave For Sale (NAPERVILLE)”.
Language Qualified The Incident as Hate Crime
That language, along with a caption that used another racial slur, fit the criteria for hate crime charges.
“The comments that were made by the photo we immediately started investigating it as a hate crime, because it fit the criteria of the law,” said Naperville Police Chief Bob Marshall. “The criteria is some type of crime such as disorderly conduct, which alarms and disturbs another person, and the comments directly related to the individual’s race.”
More Information Of The Case
A DuPage County judge ordered the accused youth to avoid the other teen outside of school, and in school, contact cannot be threatening.
The accused teen is now serving an in-school suspension, and his next court appearance has been scheduled for December 18.
Buffalo Wild Wings Racist Incident
This comes after a different racial incident that occurred last month at a Naperville Buffalo Wild Wings, where a multiracial party of 18 said they were asked by staff to move tables, as a regular who was racist did not want to sit by black people. In that case, no hate crime charges were filed.
Marshall said though unfortunate, these incidents are not indicative of Naperville overall.
“Our community is a very caring and welcome community there are thousands of interactions among Naperville residents and businesses on a daily basis,” said Marshall. I don’t want to minimize what happen in those incidents, but it’s not reflective of our entire community as a whole.
Naperville News 17’s Christian Canizal reports.
