The arrest and suspension of a high school student, who is Black and Native American, for fighting a white classmate who had allegedly bullied him over his race has left a Massachusetts community in turmoil, with accusations the school district has ignored racist incidents in the past.
The Enterprise reported that 15-year-old Ras Russell got into a physical altercation with another student at Sandwich High School & STEM Academy in February. The other student, who is white but has not been identified, had allegedly harassed Russell for months with racial slurs, telling him to “go back to Africa” and to “pick cotton,” The Enterprise reported.
During the fight, which was filmed by a student, Russell allegedly kicked and punched the other student repeatedly, leaving his white classmate with a broken collarbone and other injuries. Video footage allegedly showed the white student getting kicked as he was curled up on the floor.
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Russell was ultimately suspended from school through April and charged with felony assault and battery with a dangerous weapon—his shoe. The white student was also charged for assault and battery, but not for a felony crime, according to The Enterprise.
The Cape Cod Times reported Russell was initially scheduled to be arraigned on April 12. But after the hearing was postponed until May—and after an emotional community meeting—Sandwich Public School Superintendent Pamela Gould said this week she would start the process of getting Russell back in class.
“He should not continue to be withheld due to the judge’s scheduling conflict,” Gould wrote in a school letter, according to the Cape Cod Times. “In the end, we all want this young man back in school and accessing a full education.”
In a letter addressed to the community in March, Gould revealed that a “horrible comment” had been made in an online game room the night before the fight.
“The next day, the student in question made a decision to find the student who made the comment in order to physically take matters into his own hands,” Gould wrote. “Only after the fight did the administration learn of why he made the decision to fight the student, sending him to get medical care, without one punch returned. His choice, plus the severity of the injuries to the other student, made the incident a police matter.”
“Now, we all feel for the young man who had a racist statement made about him. Of course, we are livid about that,” Gould continued. “But as adults, we must reiterate to our youth that violence is not the way to handle it.”
Gould did not go into detail, but insisted the student who made the racist comment had been disciplined based on district guidelines.
In the aftermath of the episode, community members demanded a town hall meeting to address what went down—and why the white student was already back at school despite the racial abuse that allegedly precipitated the fight.
“You cannot blame him and let the bully have no consequences,” Russell’s aunt, Marguerite Ormon, said at the April 6 town hall meeting, according to WBZ News Radio.
Ormon blasted the school for allowing the white student to return while her nephew was still on suspension.
“My nephew was called on several occasions, and they have that in texts, ‘N—r.’ This child endured that, he’s a child,” she said at the meeting. “He’s not mature enough to know all the full consequences of that explosion that happened after months of this type of language and this type of bullying happening.”
Russell’s mother, Paulene Jones, also alleged that racism had become a growing issue within the Sandwich Public School District and is being overlooked.
“It’s been a rising problem and it’s not going away. Nobody has addressed the students of Sandwich on how this is not going to be tolerated,” she said, according to The Enterprise.
Jones told the Cape Cod Times that the white student had been targeting her son since September.
On social media, the community members of Sandwich—known as the oldest town on Cape Cod—raised concerns about racism within local schools and the area at-large.
“I’m going to go ahead and put it out there as a mother of…2 biracial children at Sandwich High School/STEM…The Sandwich school system sucks and does absolutely nothing when it comes to racism in this town!” Amanda Van Buren posted on Facebook.
“I went to SHS and can confirm the widespread racism,” Matthew Martinez wrote. “I don’t know how many times I heard jokes about swimming to the U.S. from Cuba or being told to go back to Mexico. I am of neither Mexican or Cuban descent. The school system failed Ras plain and simple. The other boy got what he deserved. He’s lucky he didn't try that out in the real world. I suspect he would have gotten more than just a beating.”
Nic Tompkins-Hughes detailed her own experiences as a student and a parent of students in the school system.
“Sandwich continues to prioritize the learning needs of bullies over victims, and repeatedly refuses to see its own complicity in the ongoing harassment and bullying of minority identity children and families,” Tompkins-Hughes wrote.
“I grew up and lived in Sandwich almost my whole life,” Amanda Hutchinson added. “I also went to school in the town for years. The town absolutely has a problem with racism. This story is heartbreaking. There is no doubt in my mind that the victim was harassed with racial verbal abuse. The town and schools need to do much better.”
Neither Sandwich High School & STEM Academy nor Sandwich Public Schools immediately returned The Daily Beast’s request for comment Thursday.
