“College touring while Native American”. Sigh. What is wrong with people??
The kid of the parent who called might be completely mortified, too.
I hope CSU offers to fly the two boys back out and cover their overnight expenses for a personalized tour.
So far, it seems that the parent who called the police has managed to avoid being found by any news organizations.
Stories like this are unbelievable, except that they actually are believable.
In the past few years, I have lost a considerable amount of my belief that we have made meaningful progress in our race relations in this country.
There has been progress, but there has been regress as well, with regress being more dominant recently.
I don’t even get it. You’re on a tour, which lasts what? like 45 minutes? and part way through two more people show up. You’re so disturbed that you call the police (right away?), and the police have time to show up, escort the “offenders” away, question them, and release them, while the tour is still underway? Hell, it takes me longer to decide to use the restroom.
In Colorado, yet. smh
This story made me so sad and angry. These kids deserve an apology from the woman – she needs to come forward. Horrible.
I want to know what was said by the parent to make the cops show up.
The University PD made it worse by patting them down. Idiots all around, idiots who should be ashamed of themselves. Sheesh, stupidity knows no bounds
I hate to think what might have happened to these 2 young men if one hadn’t been able to produce a copy of the email confirming their participation in the tour. They drove 7 hours to get to CSU, BTW.
University Police should know it’s common for people to join a tour in progress, if they arrive a few minutes late. They should have asked them if they were part of the tour, and alerted the guide, since the parent didn’t feel it was appropriate to do so. They also should have spoken in person with the parent who made the call - to ensure the call actually came from a parent, and not somebody else who saw them join the group.
Perhaps these people who are scared of people they don’t know should reconsider sending their kids off to college - where they will be surrounded by people they don’t know. They’ve heard all these things about people that look like them, but I bet this woman’s son looks more like the people that commit most campus violence than the boys who missed the tour.
I do hope they identify who made the call (shouldn’t be too hard, she must have used a cell phone which can be traced back to her), but don’t factor her behavior into any admissions decision. Her son might or might not even know she made the call (my oldest daughter often stayed near the tour guide, but preferred us to hang back with the other parents, so she wouldn’t necessarily know if I had done something similar), and if he did, he might not think the way she does. If he does, he might benefit from a diverse campus, as long as he doesn’t migrate towards other students like his mother.
I just read this article. I am beyond sick of racist behavior like this. As a mother of children of color, it absolutely breaks my heart that those two young men were treated in this manner. Enough is enough already.
I’ve been on probably 50 college tours. I honestly cannot remember anytime that someone joined the tour midway. Once in a while I’d see someone in the group next to ours change right in the beginning. But join midway. I’m sure it does happen but my experience tells me it doesn’t happen much. Would I think it strange if two kids joined the tour without a word?
Honestly? Probably.
Especially if they were “ quiet and keeping to each other “ or were “remaining silent and chose not engage in conversation”[ this is how I saw the situation described in some articles.]
I think I might feel like they were lurking a bit.
Would I call the police?
No. Omg. No
If I felt it was odd, and if I’m being honest I might have if any two kids without parents did this, I’d try to ask them something friendly. Only if there was then something off about them would I do anything and it would be to mention it to the tour guide.
Looks like they are being invited back for the VIP tour -
http://denver.cbslocal.com/2018/05/04/csu-campus-tour-native-americans-questioned/
Good for the school, trying to make it right for the two kids. That’s what they should do.
People are being fed a diet of suspicion and “speak up if you see something” then running that through a racist lens, so that perfectly normal behavior is turned into suspicion and 911 calls. I don’t care how “quiet” they were–no one would be making that call if they were white. Plenty of anxiety-filled, quiet kids go on college tours and don’t get reported. I feel we’re going backwards. 
I think the tour guide is lying when she said she did not realize the two boys were pulled. The cops didn’t simply ask for tour confirmation. They treated the boys like criminals asking them to both empty their pockets and not put their hands in their pockets at the same time. Then they admonish the boys for not speaking up and just leave them. Not offering to help them find their tour group or anything. Never mind the racist parent. Hope she is hanging her head in shame.
" Would I think it strange if two kids joined the tour without a word?
Honestly? Probably.
Especially if they were “ quiet and keeping to each other “ or were “remaining silent and chose not engage in conversation”[ this is how I saw the situation described in some articles.]
I think I might feel like they were lurking a bit.If I felt it was odd, and if I’m being honest I might have if any two kids without parents did this, I’d try to ask them something friendly. Only if there was then something off about them would I do anything and it would be to mention it to the tour guide."
What would you have considered a reasonable reaction to your attempts to “be friendly” that would have kept you from mentioning it to the tour guide? What would have or could have been “off” aside from having a visible weapon or saying something threatening that would merit a mention?
I honestly think that you wouldn’t have been concerned at all if the quiet kids without parents were Caucasian.
I haven’t seen it mentioned here, but many Native American tribes have cultural values that encourage quietness and reservation. I worked with hundreds of Native Americans for over twenty five years. Not all of them fit that description, but a large percentage very much did - mostly the ones who grew up on Indian reservations.
I learned during my career that educators in “Indian Country” (which is a term Native American’s use to describe areas with large populations of NA’s, usually reservations) are often trained to understand the difference between traditional NA culture and European culture as it relates to the school environment. The information in the link below is an example of training materials used.
http://literacynet.org/lp/namericans/values.html
An excerpt is below.
"Placidity is valued, as is the ability to remain quiet and still. Silence is comfortable. Most Indians have few nervous mannerisms. Feelings of discomfort are frequently masked in silence to avoid embarrassment of self or others. When ill at ease, Indians observe in silence while inwardly determining what is expected of them. Indians are generally slow to demonstrate signs of anger or other strong emotions. This value may differ sharply from that of the dominant society, which often values action over inaction.
This conflict in values often results in Indian people being incorrectly viewed as shy, slow, or backward. The silence of some Indians can also be misconstrued as behavior that snubs, ignores, or appears to be sulking."
Honestly, that description above describes my daughter’s personality, behavior, and mannerisms to a T. She’s Asian. Her friends tell her she has an Asian game face. Would someone have called the police if she showed up alone and late to a college tour?
.What would you have considered a reasonable reaction to your attempts to “be friendly” that would have kept you from mentioning it to the tour guide?
Pretty much any response. Like to “ nice day” a nod at least
What would have or could have been “off” aside from having a visible weapon or saying something threatening that would merit a mention?”
Suddenly walking away when I tried to speak to them
Again. No calling of police. Just to the tour guide “ do you know who those kids who just joined the tour are?” And if she wasn’t aware that they’d joined I’d hope for a “ hey, I didn’t see you before. Did you come late? Any questions on anything you might have missed?”
As I said in more than 50 campus tours I’ve never been on one where anybody joined late. I was on a few 2-3 where people I saw move from a different group to ours and would announce that they were joining.
If these kids had been there from the start I would have thought nothing of them being quiet. It was the late joining that honestly struck me as very odd when combined with the not speaking.
Given that I’ve never seen this I would Ihave though it odd if any young people who didn’t speak to anyone joined the tour. I probably would interpret it as some kind lurking though I will admit more if they were male than female. That’s sexist I will concede.
We were late for Wellesley tour. Admission person said that if we hurried, we would be able to catch up with the tour group somewhere on campus. I didn’t know it’s such a rare thing that the late comers join mid-tour.