I really don’t think it is. We’ve been on tours where latecomers joined in.
As I said, my personal experince 50+ tours. No one joined late out of nowhere. A few who migrated from other groups who said “hi. we are going to be with you now, that other group was too big (or something)”
So based on that would it strike me as odd to suddenly have two people join the group without a word. Yes. It would. Would I call the police? Heck no. Would i mention it to the guide? Maybe.
It’s worth noting that the boys said they were too shy to speak up during introductions, which seems to imply they were on the tour since the beginning.
It takes a certain level of paranoia to believe a campus tour would be a target of a criminal. There are campus police around, tons of witnesses, no clear getaway path, and little expected valuables being carried.
Kudos to CSU for trying to make this right.
It’s totally lame, and there’s no excusing it. At all. Even if they were total randos who weren’t even interested in college, they weren’t doing anything and I can’t believe someone would call police.
If I saw two kids join a tour late, I probably would have just thought that they were typical teenagers. I don’t think I would have thought twice about them. Now if they were rowdy and obnoxious, they would have annoyed me but I still would never think about calling the police, no matter what color they were.
When our oldest was touring schools, we joined a few late. Last month my husband got stuck in horrid traffic, and joined a tour late, having missed the open house presentations. I’ve often seen other people join our tours late, particularly at schools where they don’t have one leaving every half hour.
I wonder if the suspicious parent used the blue light phones that are always being pointed out on these tours.
I hope the school does more than offer up a VIP tour.
There’s been a lot of coverage on this incident locally since the boys are from NM. (The family is Mohawk, but they live on the Santa Cruz Pueblo.)
CSU has released both police body camera footage and the 911 call the mother placed.
Audio recording of the phone call here: https://■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/coloradoan-1/listen-parent-calls-csu-police-to-report-native-american-students-on-tour
The woman stepped away from the tour to make the 911 call on her cell, although her husband and child continued on with the tour and later provided info about where the tour group was located so the police could find the group and interrogate the boys.
Apparently another parent relayed to the woman’s husband that he too thought the boys were “odd” and didn’t belong with a college tour group. The woman then reported this to the 911 operator.
One funny (ironic funny, not ha-ha funny)–the boys apparently told the woman they were from NEW Mexico when she asked, but she told the 911 operator that the boys were from “Mexico.”
This is sickening.
Probably the reason that car license plates from that state say “New Mexico USA”.
These situations are becoming far too common.
If they answered where they were from when asked by a parent on the tour, then they weren’t actually be completely quiet and uncommunicative either.
Wow…just watched the police cam.
Those boys were consistently polite, cooperative and “normal” with the campus police. So, can’t imagine what this caller had to go on other than these boys’ race for her gut reaction. Though the footage purposefully blurred their faces a little bit, you can see enough to determine that there was nothing menacing about their facial expressions or mannerisms. Sure, they were wearing black with “weird symbolism” (I’m quoting the 911 tape of the caller) , but don’t at least 1/4 of college boys of any race have something in their wardrobes that loosely fit that description?
I thought the campus police were calm and relatively polite in the way that they talked to the boys, but the fact that they searched them as they did because of someone’s unfounded suspicions was outrageously wrong (unless they would also search and frisk each and every white kid whose appearance some parent didn’t happen to like. )
Apparently this racist mother thinks she’s entitled to interrogate random brown teenage boys and if they don’t answer her, they must be criminals up to no good. They wouldn’t answer when she asked them what they wanted to study? What makes her think she is entitled to their answers, or anything from them whatsoever? Her name and face should be plastered all over the papers so everyone can see what a racist she is.
Oh, but the boys were wearing black clothing. Well that is certainly suspicious. Book them for felonious black shirt wearing, Danno.
The police searched the kids because the caller reported that one of them had his hand inside his hoody pocket the entire time and never took it out. When the police first saw them the kid indeed had his hand inside his pocket. Can you imagine that given those facts what would have happened if the police didn’t search them and it turned out there was a waeapon? People would have been outraged. You can Blame the caller for being ridiculously paranoid but the cops acted as they had to given the information provided.
I walked to the store today and I had my hands inside my pockets (my hoody) for much of the time. Did this make me suspect? No, because I’m a white woman.
One of the boys was wearing a t-shirt with strange marking on it. It had his favorite band on it. That band has since offered the boys free tickets to everyone of their concerts.
@rosered55 If someone called the police and said “There’s a woman at the store who is acting oddly. She wouldn’t give her name when the clerk asked and she has had one hand inside her sweatshirt the entire time”
Do you really think that the police wouldn’t search that white woman if the saw her with her hand inside her pocket? Now whether anyone would have made that call to,the police in the first place is highly highly doubtful. But if it was, I don’t see that the police had much of a choice
What is strange is it that it was raining that day, so I think the group would have been scurrying from building to building. Also, it is the last week of classes/finals week so the tours were probably avoiding some of the typical places they tour, like the library or a classroom building. How many high school students are touring on May 1? Most hs kids around here are getting read for AP exams, finals, last sports games, concerts, etc.