Frederick Co. middle schoolers face hate crime charges

Three eighth grade students are facing hate crimes charges after investigators say they posted online threats targeting Black students.

The Frederick County Sheriff’s Office says they have four photos where the boys, who are White, are posing with weapons.

One of the photos is captioned, ‘Slaves ran away.’ Investigators say the three other photos have the same caption,’We finna shoot some more n---s,’ using a racial slur. The boys are holding guns in the pictures.

At a press conference Thursday, investigators said two of the guns were BB or Airsoft guns, but one was real. They said in addition to the hate crimes charge, one student is facing a charge of possession of a firearm by a minor.

Sheriff’s Lt. Jason Deater said investigators determined parents are not liable for the child obtaining the weapon but didn’t elaborate on why.

Deater said the photos were first shared on Snapchat a month or two ago, but for some reason, they were shared again in a group chat among students Wednesday morning at Middletown Middle School.

RELATED: Threats targeting Black students at Middletown Middle School made on social media

Staff became aware and Deater said one of the students was immediately pulled from class to determine if there was an active threat.

Yanira Gordon, PTSA President at Middletown Middle, said this is behavior that’s been building up over the school year. Her child is in eighth grade.

"It’s very commonplace for them to communicate with each other using slurs and terrible terms in person and on social media," said Gordon. "I think it culminated in the images we saw yesterday that just shocked everyone."

Gordon is planning a community rally at the school at 7:15 a.m. Thursday, she says to take back the town and condemn racism, bullying, and violence.

Frederick County Sheriff Chuck Jenkins said he and his staff will attend the rally.

Deater said it doesn’t appear the three boys were targeting specific students, and it’s still under investigation what led up to this.

"That’s something we’re actively looking at, whether there was any kind of incident that sparked these photographs and these hateful messages and stuff," Deater said. "So we are actively looking at that right now. We don’t have anything that leads us to why this was done."

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Frederick County Public Schools Spokesman Dr. Eric Louérs-Phillips said what happened caused people at the school to feel unsafe.

"Every Black child was targeted, every Black community member was targeted by the posting of those messages," said Louérs-Phillips.

He said for now the three boys are not allowed at school and disciplinary action will be decided at the end of the investigation.

The sheriff’s office said the investigation could last another week or two as they interview students who saw or were sent the photos.

The students are being charged as juveniles and have been released to their parents, according to officials.