The 15-year-old, who also appeared to throw cotton balls at the classmate in a video, was arrested on Tuesday in connection with the episode, which “appears to be racially motivated.”
A Louisiana high school student who was captured on video appearing to throw cotton balls at a Black student and whip him several times with a belt was arrested on Tuesday on a hate crime charge, the authorities said.
Video recorded on March 9 in the cafeteria of Vandebilt Catholic High School in Houma, La., shows a student walking over to a table of “African American students, throwing cotton onto the table and then hitting one of the students with a belt,” the school’s president, Jeremy Gueldner, said in a statement on Wednesday.
The footage, which was recorded by another Vandebilt student, was shared on social media, and the school started an investigation that included the Terrebonne Parish Sheriff’s Office, he said.
The name of the student, who is white, has not been released. Mr. Gueldner said disciplinary action had been taken.
“Yesterday’s actions by a few are not consistent with the values and mission of our school,” he said in a separate statement last Thursday, which also quoted the parents of the victim as saying they “appreciate the outpouring of support and prayers from our Vandebilt community.”
On Tuesday, Tim Soignet, the Terrebonne Parish sheriff, announced that a 15-year-old ninth grader at the school had been arrested on simple battery and hate crime charges in connection with a “racially motivated video” that had been shared on social media last week. He said the student had been booked into the Juvenile Justice Complex in nearby Gray, La.
Sheriff Soignet said last week that his office had received a complaint about an episode that “appears to be racially motivated,” and that detectives had met with the victim’s parents.
The high school is overseen by the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux. Officials there did not return calls.
The video shows a white student walking up behind a Black student, who is seated at a table in a crowded cafeteria, and throwing something at him. After being struck four times with what appears to be a belt, the Black student jumps up, turns around and pushes the student away.
Maj. Malcolm Wolfe, a spokesman for the sheriff’s office, said on Thursday that “what we released is all we can release at this time,” noting that the arrest was “based on probable cause.”
Citing the fact that the case involved a minor, a prosecutor with the Office of the District Attorney in Terrebonne Parish said on Thursday that he couldn’t comment on the proceedings, including whether the student had been released on bond or whether he had appeared in court.
