A 12-year-old Modesto, Calif. boy who allegedly claimed he was a member of the Ku Klux Klan was cited for a hate crime and battery after he attacked a Black middle school student at a bus stop. NuPhaeya Hassen was waiting on a school boy on August 24 when the boy came up to her brandishing sticks and scratching her arm before Hassen smacked him in defense.
According to a report from the Modesto Bee, Hassen, a student at La Loma Junior High School, was disciplined rather harshly for smacking the unnamed boy. Adding to the tense situation, the boy’s high school sister was also cited after she allegedly waited for Hassen at the bus stop to physically confront her over why she slapped her brother. Hassen said the sister hit her, but not before she was able to defend herself before the tussle got broken up.
More from the Modesto Bee:
She [Hassen] asserts the boy held them in the shape of a cross while saying he was a member of the Ku Klux Klan and raised as a “skinhead.” He proceeded to swing the sticks at her, scratching her arm.
NuPhaeya said she responded by slapping the boy, who then went across the street and threw rocks at her until the bus arrived. None of the rocks hit her, she said.
“My child is a GATE (Gifted and Talented Education) student; she shouldn’t have to go through this,” said NuPhaeya’s grandmother, Rita Tillery. “Children should be able to go to school – black children, white children, Hispanics. We are all the same. We all bleed red blood.”
Modesto police spokeswoman Heather Graves confirmed that on Friday the boy was cited and released to his parents on suspicion of committing a hate crime and battery.
The local NAACP chapter took umbrage at how Hassen was given a one-day suspension over slapping the boy despite not stating why the slap occurred. Hassen’s grandmother kept her daughter out of school for the August 27 suspension, and the boy and his sister have returned to school.
Watch CBS13.com’s report below.
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Photo: CBS Sacramento
