A screen capture of the video that was uploaded to Instagram on May 6.
UPDATE: July 13, 12:08 p.m. - In response to our request for comment, North Penn School District stated that it is a police matter, they are continuing to cooperate with the investigation and cannot comment any further.
In an interview with North Penn Now, Towamencin Township Police Chief Tim Troxel said the three teens will face identical charges ranging from summary offenses to 3rd degree misdemeanors as a result of allegedly engaging in the fight. Troxel said the charges have been filed in juvenile court, the families have been notified and all three of the girls have turned themselves in for processing.
Due to the ages of the accused and the charges being filed in juvenile court, the names of the accused are being withheld by this news organization. Likewise, with the cases being juvenile and active, officials declined to release any specific details from their investigation.
The fight, which involved two white females against a Black Muslim female, drew regional outcry in May after the mother of the Black Muslim student posted video of the fight to Instagram, stating that the incident should be investigated as a hate crime and claiming that the two white females deliberately ripped off the Black Muslim girl’s hijab. (Click here to see the video and the mother’s allegations.)
The video itself was 19 seconds long and begins after the fight was already in the process of being broken up by school security. Though the Instagram video didn’t show the hijab being ripped off, it did show the Black Muslim student without her hijab as security was raising her up from the floor. She was then led from the incident scene without being able to cover her face, according to the girl’s mother and later corroborated by the school district.
Reactions to the fight video were swift, including an impassioned speech from Shaykh Anwar Muhammad, of Lansdale's Black Reserve Bookstore, at the first of a series of protests held on the steps of the high school, and North Penn School District issuing an apology for not immediately returning the Black Muslim student’s hijab at the end of the fight. Police, however, issued calls for patience and said they would need time to conduct a thorough investigation — including the possibility that the attack was racially or religiously motivated.
Investigators noted in the days that followed the fight that they had secured closed-circuit video which showed the entirety of the 32-second fight, including the first 13 seconds that occurred before the widely shared video began. Troxel said that a thorough investigation of the incident — including extensive interviews with involved parties, school security, student witnesses, friends and a review of social media accounts — ultimately showed no indication that the fight had any religious or racial motivation.
"There is no indication that the incident was related to any racial or religious issue,” said Troxel.
That determination likely doesn’t sit well with the mother of the Black Muslim student, who took to Instagram on Monday morning with a video reiterating her view of what happened, especially in regards to how the hijab came to be removed from her daughter.
"Hijabs do not just fall off, especially not when worn properly,” said the mother, on her Instagram post. "It would have to have been caught on something, or grabbed in order to fall off like that.”
North Penn Now has filed a Right to Know request with the school district seeking to secure the full surveillance video of the incident, in the hopes that the video can clarify how the fight began and how the hijab came to be removed from the Black Muslim student. That request is currently pending.
CAIR Protest Scheduled for Wednesday
On Monday afternoon, the Philadelphia chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) announced that they will hold a protest at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, in response to the district attorney’s decision to charge the Black Muslim student.
"We are deeply disappointed by the decision to pursue criminal charges against [the student],” said Timothy Welback, a CAIR-Philadelphia Civil Rights attorney who is representing the student and her family. "We have maintained from the beginning that our client is the victim in this incident, and our system should protect her rather than vilify her. We will do all in our power to vigorously fight against these charges.”
The protest is scheduled for July 14 at noon. The Montgomery County Courthouse is located at 2 East Airy Street in Norristown.
Editor’s note: A previous version of the article stated in error that Shaykh Anwar Muhammad and the Ambler NAACP organized the protests at North Penn High School. While Muhammad was present at the first protest and spoke to attendees, neither he nor the Ambler NAACP participated in the organization of the events. We apologize for the error.
This story will be updated with further comment from Chief Troxel, as well as officials from North Penn School District, as they are received.
See also:
School Board Issues Statement Reaffirming Commitment To Diversity Following Cafeteria Incident
School District Provides Update On Investigation Into Fight At North Penn High School Cafeteria
