Stay Connected
Atlanta Black Star/Video/News Video
News VideoVideo

Colorado Student Tries to Downplay Facebook Post Threatening Black People After Expulsion

Posted byBy Ricky Riley | Published on: | Updated on August 23, 2020 CommentsComments (0)

A group of Boulder Preparatory High School students have been expelled after racist threats from a Neo-Nazi Facebook chat group were brought to the attention of school officials and authorities.

Member Sage Reynolds says the Facebook 4th Reich Official Group Chat is harmless. However, authorities think otherwise. With messages like “WHITE POWER” and “DEATH TO ALL JEWS AND N—-” police have tied the group to a recent suicide.

ABC 7 News reports that five students have been expelled for their connection to the group. That suicide victim was part of the group and took his life to commit support to the Nazi-inspired movement. Police discovered the group and the posts after receiving an anonymous tip.

In a recent interview with ABC 7 News, Reynolds tells reporters that the members were only joking about the threats to kill African-Americans and people of Jewish descent.

“It was not anything (serious),” Reynolds starts. “None of the kids were planning on carrying out anything violent in nature. It was just a bad joke.”

The 18-year-old tells reporters that he received a slip of paper and was told he was no longer a student at the high school.

“There was no reconciliation with the families. It was just, ‘Your kid is being expelled, call us if you have any questions.’ ”

Reynolds is only one of a dozen college and high school students named in the Boulder Police Department report. However, none were charged with a crime. The former student apologized and denounced his involvement in the group.

Independent journalism still matters.

We hope this story was worth your time. For over 14 years, Atlanta Black Star has stayed Black-owned and independently run. We didn't get here by waiting on ad budgets that were never built to prioritize us. Our readers did that.

Corporate support for Black media has always been thin. Outlets like ours get roughly 1% of the $170 billion spent on U.S. advertising each year, and that margin is shrinking further as advertisers walk back the DEI-linked commitments they made in 2020. That's the backdrop. It's not why we're asking.

The wider picture isn't any steadier. Newspaper ad revenue has fallen more than 80% since 2005, and local newsrooms are closing at a rate of roughly two a week nationwide. When outlets go under, it's rarely the ones built to center a Black perspective from the ground up that get to stick around.

We know a request for support isn't why you came here. But without readers choosing to fund this work directly, the depth of reporting we can do at home and abroad shrinks along with everyone else's. If you're not in a position to give, that doesn't change how much we value you as a reader.

If you are able to, a recurring contribution does more for us than a single one-time gift, because it lets us plan the next investigation instead of just the next invoice. It takes about 30 seconds, no long form, no account. Thank you for continuing to support independent journalism and freedom of the press.

Give once Give monthly Support another way

Related Stories

Back to top