Charges possible over video of black student eating chicken

EASTON, Pa. – A teenager accused of producing a racist video of a black classmate eating chicken and posting it online could face criminal charges, a prosecutor said Wednesday.

Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli said he’s considering ethnic intimidation and harassment charges against a 14-year-old white student at Saucon Valley High School.

The teenager recorded a 16-year-old black boy eating chicken wings and in narrating the video called the older boy the N-word and made references to “being broke and on welfare,” said Morganelli, who called the video “reprehensible” and “repulsive.”

After seeing the video on social media, the black student attacked the white student at a football game, Morganelli said. Lower Saucon police charged the black student with assault and other offences; the charges are pending in juvenile court.

Morganelli opened the probe on Wednesday after an attorney for the black student showed him the video.

The Saucon Valley School District investigated the incident and “handled it very appropriately,” schools Superintendent Monica McHale-Small told The Morning Call newspaper of Allentown. She called the white student’s behaviour “incredibly vile.”

The students’ names haven’t been released.

Last month, parents and students told the Saucon Valley School Board about several other racist incidents. One student said she was asked if she was drinking from the right water fountain and then was told the fountain was only for whites, the newspaper reported.