Authorities in Connecticut are investigating a racist video recorded by a white teenager that’s rife with racist slurs and repeated threats to “lynch” Black Americans.
Southington Police, as well as officials with Southington Public Schools, are reviewing the matter, as a Southington High School student is believed to be behind the racist clip, NBC Connecticut reported. On Thursday, Superintendent Timothy Connellan sent home a letter to parents condemning the student’s behavior.
In the video, the student is heard challenging people to fight him and threatening to burn crosses in their front yard.
“The video in question contains racially inappropriate and highly charged language … and language implying the support of violence against people of color,” Connellan wrote in the letter. “Please note that the Southington Public Schools don’t condone, support or tolerate the type of language or behavior demonstrated in the video.”
According to police, the footage was posted to a private chat on social app Snapchat before another person leaked it to Twitter on Wednesday. Now, authorities are working to determine if there is any sort of criminal aspect to the video.
“Stop being such a f—–g n—-r,” the unnamed teen rants in the clip before threatening to “lynch every single f—–g n—r in this goddamn group chat.”
He proceeds to hurl racial epithets and, at one point, challenges people to fight him over his use of the n-word. The student then takes a page from the Ku Klux Klan and claims he’s going to burn crosses in their front yards.
“You wanna get offended by me saying n—-r?” he added. “Well how about I come over there and lynch you like one.” The teen also claimed to have “hung 12 Black men from a tree just this night.”
A local television news station reported that it reached out to the student whose screed is under investigation. WFSB said it talked to the student by phone, when it said the teenager, whom the station did not name, apologized and said the rant was directed toward a group he was quarreling with, all of whom are white.
Connellan called the student’s rhetoric “hugely offensive” and said the district investigation could result in disciplinary action.
“Any student in the Southington Public Schools District whose behavior is shown to be seriously disruptive of the educational process will experience disciplinary consequences consistent with Board of Education policy and regulations and the applicable state and federal statutes and regulations,” he wrote in the letter.
The video comes just weeks after two North Carolina teens were reprimanded after they also posted clips of themselves spewing extremely racist language, including references to lynchings. The students shared the video online over the Thanksgiving holiday and it went viral.
Several Southington High students were shocked to learn of the racist video and said they’re ashamed such language is now being linked to their school.
“It’s a tight knit community,” student Jeremy Capobianco, 16, told the CT Record-Journal. “I never expected to hear that. It’s an extremely radical view.”
So far, no charges have been filed in the case.
Watch more in the video below.
