Police to give update on racial incident involving students at Springfield elementary school
Springfield police are expected to provide more information on their investigation into a racial incident at that happened at one of the city’s elementary schools earlier this month.
Police Chief Allison Elliot is scheduled to give an update on an incident that happened at Kenwood Elementary School Feb. 10 this afternoon.
Police were called to Kenwood Elementary on Feb. 13 about an incident that happened during recess the previous Friday, according to an incident report obtained through a News Center 7 public records request.
As News Center 7 previously reported, police were informed by the school’s principal that “a group of Black students had gathered several white students on a specific spot of the playground and forced them to state ‘Black Lives Matter’ against their will.”
Students who tried to avoid the situation were “chased down and escorted, dragged, or carried to the playground,” the report alleges. The group of students also allegedly filmed the students who were forced to make the statement.
One student was punched in the head by one of the suspects, the police report states.
Springfield police have questioned multiple juveniles in the incident, according to the report.
News Center 7 spoke to Ryan Springer and Ashley Henthorne, parents of one of the students who were forced to the ground.
“I mean I’m angry as a parent but I understand they are children. It’s not okay to hate anybody because of their skin color, or their gender or sexual orientation, or anything like that. Nobody should be hating anybody,” Springer said.
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Henthorne said she was not notified of the incident when it happened Friday, but noticed a change in her 12-year-old son. When she was notified of what happened Monday she said the changes she saw in her son made sense.
“I kept asking him all weekend, are you OK? And he kept saying, ‘yeah, I’m just tired’ And then when I got the phone call Monday about it, I was like, ‘that explained a lot.’” Henthrone said.
In a previous statement to News Center 7, Springfield School District said they are “committed to providing our students with a safe learning environment, where they look forward to attending every day.”
“The District is aware of a situation that occurred at Kenwood Elementary. We are working closely with the Springfield Police Division on this matter to ensure that we maintain that safe environment. Because this is now a police matter, no additional information is available at this time,” a spokesperson said.
We’ll update this story as we learn more.