6 Middle Schoolers Charged w/ Hate Crimes for Mock ‘Slave Auction’ on Snapchat

“Bullying, especially when it involves race, is an insidious force within a school community and within a community at large,” he said.

He proceeded to call it “deeply damaging to victims” who undergo “humiliation” as a result. Anyone who would bully another, like the six children involved in the Snapchat group, he called “vile, cruel and contemptible.”

Allyson Lopez, the mother of one of the children targeted by the mock slave auction, told school officials that without seeing the issue through the lens of race, they could not fully understand the trauma faced by her daughter, and so were incapable of addressing the issue.

“None of you on this panel understand because you don’t stand in [my daughter’s] shoes; you don’t stand in my shoes,” Lopez said, indicating that the racism might run even deeper than the student body.

“Up until today, you haven’t done anything to make it better,” she continued. “… You still don’t get it, because you’re looking at me spaced out.”