Teen expelled, arrested over racist gun videos: 'I hate black people'
A South Carolina high school student was expelled and arrested over racist videos, including one of him shooting a box of sneaker box and saying, “I hate black people.”
The Richland County Sheriff’s Department in Dentsville won’t identify the student because he is 16 years old. However, in a video from May, the teen calls himself Parker Mustian. “I hate black people,” he says, loading a shotgun. “They’re the worst. They’re stinky and they just suck. They’re just bad people.”
Pointing to a box of Air Jordan sneakers, which the teen calls “the favorite pair of shoes for a black man,” he adds, “I’m going to show you what I think of a black man.” He then shoots the box three times.
“F*** all n******,” he says.
The teen attends Cardinal Newman School in Columbia, and the footage was included on a group text between students and parents. According to a Friday letter published on the school website by principal Robert Loia, administrators learned about the video on July 13 after a parent informed them. In a follow-up letter on Aug. 4, Loia clarified that law enforcement had been notified about the video, but they determined it wasn’t a criminal act. On July 15, school administrators met with the teen’s parents, informing them their son would be expelled. The parents reportedly chose to withdraw their son from the school instead and were told “their son was banned from school property.”
But the discovery of a second video by a parent on July 17 — where the same teen allegedly threatened to “shoot up” the school — prompted the school to call the police, who arrested the student. According to The State, the footage shows the teen proclaiming to be a “hater of all black men,” using the n-word, and shooting an object with an automatic rifle and a shotgun.
“Because we, along with law enforcement, promptly addressed the threat, the risk to the school community was neutralized,” wrote principal Loia.
According to The State, on July 17, the police also confiscated a variety of guns from Mustain’s home.
Addressing the reported outcry from parents who had been kept in the dark about the videos, Loia wrote that the threat had been “neutralized” and the school was protecting the identities of other students involved. “If...officials believed the school community was in danger, we would have immediately communicated with you.”
A town hall meeting moderated by the Cardinal Newman School and the Richland County Sheriff’s Department will be held on Thursday, wrote Loia.
But on Monday, the principal offered an apology for the school’s inaction. “I realize now that I should have communicated with you immediately when I learned a violent threat had been made against our school community,” he wrote on the school website. “For this, I take responsibility and offer my heartfelt apology. It is my hope and prayer to earn back my trust.”
Loia also offered to include parents on new plan addressing safety and racism on campus.
A spokesperson for the Richland County Sheriff’s Department tells Yahoo Lifestyle that the teen was charged with “student threats” and on July 17, was housed in the juvenile section of the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center in Columbia.
“In previous incidents of threats on school campuses, the sheriff’s department has released information for public safety purposes, such as the school being in session or to address the concerns of parents and students,” the spokesperson tells Yahoo Lifestyle. “Also, information is released when responding to ongoing incidents such as school lockdowns. The threat in this case was historical, was neutralized with an arrest, and posed no immediate threat to the students of Cardinal Newman...”
Sheriff Leon Lott shared a statement with Yahoo Lifestyle: “...We take all threats seriously. This is an example of how schools and law enforcement can work together to quickly address threats and perceived threats to schools and students.”
A source told FITSNews that the teen and his friends made the videos for “shock value.”
“The idea was to see who could be the most outlandishly, ridiculously offensive,” the source added. “They weren’t being serious.”
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