Thread: Parent sees profiling, deputies say they are following up...

Parent sees profiling, deputies say they are following up gang leads
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September 10, 2008 - 5:55PM
Keren Rivas / Times-News

An incident at Western Alamance High School (North Carolina) that started with a cell phone but escalated into a gang investigation has a parent threatening to sue both the Alamance-Burlington School System and the Alamance County Sheriff's Department.

"I've never seen something like this in my life," a teary-eyed Reina Fuentes said of the incident last week, which involved her 16-year-old son. "I thought this only happened on TV."

It all started on Sept. 2, when her oldest son, Jonathan Hernandez, refused to give up his cell phone, which he took out of his pocket in the school hallway while changing classes.

Since he refused to give up the phone to a school official, the school's resource office got involved. The account of what happened next varies depending on who you ask.

According to sheriff's department Spokesman Randy Jones, Jonathan told the resource officer that his mother had moved the family from New York to Alamance County to get him away from gangs. He also told the officer that he was associated with the MS 13 gang.

"He is Salvadorian," Jones said of Jonathan, adding that MS 13 is a Salvadorian gang.

Adhering to protocol, Jones said, the gang unit was called. He said Maj. Ron Parish, who oversees the bureau and who happened to be at the school when the incident occurred, also intervened and was involved in the interview that followed.

When asked for a copy of the incident report, Jones said any report or documents associated with the incident is considered intelligence information and is not public record.



ACCORDING TO JONATHAN, things happened a little differently. He said the officer asked him if gangs were the reason he and his family had moved to this area. He said he told her that gangs were partly the reason for the move.

The officer then asked him if he was familiar with the MS 13 gang, to which he said yes. He also told the officer that he knew someone who was part of the gang but that he was not associated with it.

At that point, he said he was taken to another room in the school and was interrogated for hours by three different gang officers, including Parrish. During the questioning, he said he was asked to take his shirt off so that they could check for tattoos. They found none. They also took a picture of him. A school administrator also patted him down and asked him to take his shoes off, he said.

During the interview, Jonathan said he was asked about his immigration status. Jonathan, who was born in New York, told them he was an American citizen and gave them his Social Security number and showed them his driving permit from New York. He was told the documents were false.

"They didn't believe anything I said," Jonathan said. "They made me feel like I was some kind of criminal."

He said he was told he could be arrested for disorderly conduct, though they didn't explain why. "I felt like I was being threatened," he said.

He said comments about his appearance were also made. Jonathan has long hair and has a piercing on his left eyebrow.

The officers also told him they were going to search his room, which they eventually did after getting consent from Porfirio Fuentes, Jonathan's grandfather, with whom he was staying. His mother was out of town when the incident happened.

Fuentes said he allowed the officers into his Maple Ridge Drive home because he wanted them to know that his grandson was not lying. "I told them, we didn't have anything to hide," he said. Officers searched the teen's room, including his computer, but left empty-handed, according to Fuentes.

He said that in the 30 years he's been living in this country, this is the first time someone in his family was treated this way by law enforcement. "We are working people," he said.

Because of a conflict over where Jonathan and his two siblings were living, they were taken out of school that day. They were told they could come back once their mother proves that they lived in the Western school district.



FOR REINA FUENTES, this is a case of discrimination and she said she plans to fight back. She said her son was singled out because of the color of his skin. She said she plans to sue the school system and the sheriff's department.

"I moved here thinking it was going to be better for my children," she said. "But now I see things here are worst. There is a lot of racism."

Though she and her family moved to the area two months ago, she has owned a house in Mackintosh on the Lake for the past two years. She said that after this incident, she does not want her children to go to school here.

"What can I expect from them?" she said of school officials. She said she still doesn't understand how the situation went from displaying a cell phone to officers stripping his son, searching his room, taking his photograph and labeling him a gang member.

On Tuesday, Fuentes went by the school and picked up all the documents they had of her children. She said then she was leaving for New York that night.

Libby Merrill, a spokeswoman with the school system, declined to comment about the incident, saying it is "a delicate student issue."

Without speaking about the case involving Jonathan, Merrill said she was confident that the staff and administrators at Western High School always handle themselves appropriately and follow the guidelines when disciplining students.

"The situation at Western, for what I've learned, is not an exception to the rule," she said. "I know the quality of staff at that school and I know they don't take matters like this lightly. They stand by the rules and they act appropriately."

Jones denied any allegation of racial profiling from any member of the department.

"We didn't invent it," Jones said of the reason for the gang investigation. "We don't send the gang unit every time the SROs have contact with a student."

He added, "A common-sense issue needs to apply there."

He said gang activity in the schools is a leading concern in the community and his department is going to investigate any student who professes affiliation to a gang, regardless of his race.

Whether it is a white student affiliated with the skinheads or a black student that is a Crip, "We are going to follow up on that," Jones said.

"That's how you build adequate intelligence data," he added.

Oh my my my, mama sees KA-CHING!! is what she sees.

There are SO many holes in this story I wouldn't know where to start.

Hint for lil Johnny - mentioning you were associated with MS13 wasn't the brightest idea sunshine.

Racial profiling, my a$$! Most schools have a no cell phone policy during school hours. My own kid got hers taken away and I had to go pick it up after school. Refusing to give the cell to a teacher when asked is a BIG red flag and really stupid. But then again, don't seem like Johnny is the brightest crayon in the box, eh?

Racial profiling is neccessary. Get used to it!