Oak Harbor student accused of hate crime

Published 1:30 am Friday, April 5, 2019

A boy at North Whidbey Middle School has been charged with committing a hate crime for repeatedly using a racial slur and assaulting a fellow student, according to court documents.

Prosecutors charged the 12-year-old Oak Harbor boy in Island County Juvenile Court with malicious harassment, which is defined as “maliciously and intentionally” causing physical injury to a person because of the perception of the person’s race.

The victim, an African American boy, reported to police that the other boy, who is white, had been bullying him throughout the school year. He said the boy had been calling him “the n-word,” as well as another offensive term.

On Feb. 1, the student reported that he and friends were walking on the track at school when the boy came up to them and called them by the racial epithet.

When the student told him to stop, the boy repeated the word over and over again. The victim told the boy to get away from him, but the bully got into his face, about an inch away, and said a racist insult. The victim pushed the boy away and the boy punched him in his mouth, the police report states.

The student had to go to the hospital for stitches and to a dentist for a loose tooth.