The family of a Muslim girl injured in an altercation at Ardrey Kell High School is continuing its calls for the incident to be treated as a hate crime.
This comes after the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department and federal authorities indicated evidence didn’t support hate crime charges.
The family says the girl was not interviewed in any follow-up investigation, and maintained that the male student had made derogatory comments about the girl’s Muslim background in the days leading up to the altercation, including comments about her hijab.
“What we have is not the evidence of no hate crime,” said Jibril Hough, a spokesman for the family. “What we have is evidence of the lack of a thorough investigation by CMPD and the FBI.”
CMPD said in a post on X this week that detectives assigned to an FBI task force on the case found no evidence to support a hate crime, and that there’s no active FBI investigation into the matter. In a statement to multiple media outlets, the FBI said the agency begins to take investigative steps, including conducting interviews, only “after an initial assessment of the available information indicates a potential federal violation.”
“At this time, there is no indication that the conduct implicates any federal laws and in particular federal hate crimes laws,” the FBI said.
The girl’s family called for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools to release surveillance footage of the incident, which they argue shows the girl was attacked, and that the incident was more than just a fight. They say the girl needed surgery, had a concussion and still lacks vision in one eye as a result of the incident.
The boy’s family, who also identified themselves as a family of color, has denied the allegations that race played a role in the incident, and has claimed that the girl had instigated the incident with “direct, incessant bullying by a female student which led to her physically assaulting our son.”
The boy’s family claimed he tried to de-escalate the situation but “she still chose violence — making it necessary for him to defend himself.” They say they’ve been harassed and threatened because of the publicity surrounding the incident.
“While we don’t condone physical violence, we also don’t condone our son being physically assaulted by anyone,” the boy’s family said earlier this week. “However, what was ultimately a classroom fight between two students is now being positioned publicly as an opportunity by the female student’s family — using our son as leverage.”
But at a news conference Friday, the girl’s family pushed back on those statements, accusing the boy’s family of trying to “make themselves appear the victims.” The girl’s injuries, they argue, show the incident went beyond “de-escalation.”
“We will not falter in our stance at all, especially on these four things,” said Abdulla Nasif, the girl’s older brother. “The first being that this was a hate crime. Second, that my sister did not lay a finger on him. Third, that she did not initiate any confrontations. And fourth, that she has never bullied the male attacker.”
The family is calling on authorities to look at the incident again and give it a more thorough investigation.
Neither student’s identity has been disclosed, but both were suspended by CMS. According to the girl’s family on Friday, both students were also charged with assault in juvenile court.
