One of the state’s largest school districts will move its graduations off the University of Delaware’s campus after the arrest of one of its students.
The Christina school board moved to cut the commencement tie in a meeting this week — a roughly $98,000 price tag for the Bob Carpenter Center, parking lot and University of Delaware security annually. That security remains under scrutiny by the board after an 18-year-old student was arrested by university police on Newark High School’s graduation day.
Last month, Mohammed Sanogo crossed the stage as a 4.0 GPA student looking to study at the University of Maryland.
“Less than an hour after graduation ended, our student was already bear-hugged, lifted up in the air and thrown on the ground face-first with two people sitting on him,” Naveed Baqir told his fellow school board members Tuesday night, describing the graduate’s arrest.
School officials, dozens of supporters and community leaders have reacted to the June 15 arrest caught on cellphone videos, while looking for answers from the university. And the Christina school board has begun reviewing all of its connections to UD, some nearly $250,000 in contracts.
As UD reacted to the move by Christina schools, a university spokesperson told Delaware Online/The News Journal the institution values all its partners.
“Last month, UD leadership including campus police met with representatives from the Christina School District and members of the Muslim community to discuss this matter further,” the statement reads. “We are very appreciative of this opportunity to have heard how their communities were impacted by this incident. We will continue to work together to create a stronger partnership, invite frequent communication, nurture community-building, and help advance cultural understanding.”
Baqir said meetings with the university and the district have yet to reach a resolution.
And, he warned: “We will continue to have progressive sanctions until this is addressed.”
So what happened at graduation?
Ala Shahein doesn’t remember the sound of tires.
He remembers many friends hanging back after graduation, taking photos surrounded by familiar faces, making late plans for Chick-fil-A or the movies. The teen remembers walking away from Sanogo, following another group farther away from the University of Delaware parking lot.
Moments later, he remembers watching at a distance as his close friend began to panic, pinned under two police officers.
“It’s a terrible feeling, seeing someone that you care about,” said the recent graduate of another Christina school on watching the arrest, “and you can’t really do anything because you’re being threatened by tasers. And, like, potentially making the situation even worse.”
Less than an hour earlier, the Newark High School’s graduation was wrapping up shortly before 9 p.m. at the Bob Carpenter Center. Families, friends and graduates flooded parking lots to take photos and commiserate.
Abdurahman Hasdhallah said one of his friends was a photographer.
He stayed later with Sanogo, or “Momo,” his close friend since they met at a mosque, continuing to mark the moment and take photos with their cars. Groups of friends began leaving, but Sanogo and a group of other Muslim graduates decided they’d pray first.
Hasdhallah prayed alongside them. He says he paid no mind to University of Delaware police officers nearby. Then, everyone began getting in their cars.
“We were just getting ready to leave …,” he recently recalled. “A male officer approached Momo’s car, and he was aggressive. They were being aggressive to us, and I don’t know why.”
Hasdhallah and several witnesses said officers told the teens to leave the parking lot.
That’s also when university police say the officers witnessed “careless and dangerous activity.”
“As noted in a publicly available arrest warrant, drivers of three vehicles were observed to have been operating those vehicles recklessly through a parking lot at the Bob Carpenter Center, including with passengers hanging out the windows of the vehicles,” a portion of UD’s June 21 statement to the school district reads.
The University of Delaware did not provide additional comment on the nature of the activity for this report by the time of publication.
Multiple cars were successful in leaving the parking lot, as depicted in rear dash video footage provided to Delaware Online/The News Journal. Hasdhallah left in another car. When Sanogo looked to leave, some witnesses said his tires spun, making a loud sound.
As Sanogo reached the red light, waiting to exit the parking lot, multiple vehicles suddenly surrounded Sanogo’s car. It remains unclear what trucks surrounded Sanogo’s car or why.
Then, police officers told Sanogo to exit his vehicle. The university says he “revved the engine and put the vehicle in reverse.”
Eventually, Sanogo opened the driver’s side door and exited the car. He was then placed up against his car by an officer, before barreling to a patch of grass a few feet away. One officer lifted Sanogo into the air and slammed him onto the ground, as depicted in multiple video and witness accounts.
Hasdhallah, Shahein and others watched helplessly.
“He was freaking out, he was getting scared, and I was trying to tell him: ‘Calm down. Momo, calm down,’” Hasdhallah said, knowing Sanogo’s asthma also was making it hard for him to breathe.
The university says the teen was “continuing to resist.” Ultimately, Sanogo was placed under arrest, then held until 4 a.m. that morning before being released on $200 bail.
He now awaits a hearing later this month pertaining to the arrest charges of reckless driving and resisting arrest. School board member Naveed Baqir said Sanogo and his family were advised not to speak about the incident at this time.
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Tensions may not be going anywhere soon
At the heart of the arrest, as Baqir sees it, is a question of racial and religious motivation. Baqir emphasized a history of racist incidents on campus to the board Tuesday, while criticizing UD’s response to claims of discrimination when arresting Sanogo.
“It was a blatant attempt by the University of Delaware to whitewash the whole incident by flatly refusing to even acknowledge in the beginning that there was any religious aspect involved,” Baqir said to his board.
UD vehemently denied claims that the incident was an instance of racial or religious discrimination or excessive police force, saying it “rejects any and all allegations that the UD Police Department officers acted with racial or religious bias,” in the statement from June 21. And, the university said, “UDPD applied appropriate de-escalation techniques in dealing with a suspect who resisting arrest.”
Baqir also noted that UD didn’t notify the Christina board, the district’s superintendent or the school in any way that one of their students had been arrested after the graduation. He said UD felt “above the courtesy” of informing the district. No one found out until about four days later.
The following Tuesday, June 20, the school board held a workshop in which witnesses of the arrest spoke and shared details. The next day, June 21, UD issued its first statement to the district explaining its perspective on the arrest.
Baqir said UD declined to show any video from the incident, whether through body camera footage or video from cameras mounted on nearby buildings. He also claimed members of the school district were told by UD officials that no students were hanging out of cars during the incident, including Sanogo’s — a direct conflict with UD’s original statement regarding the arrest.
Ultimately, these and further meetings went on to end “without any resolution,” Baqir said Tuesday night.
Today, he’s steadfast that this discussion can’t go away — motioning that a further severing of ties with UD could be up for a vote if the university does not “rectify the situation.”
“We will keep adding the sanctions until there is a positive response and an acknowledgment that they have done something egregious,” he said.
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Kelly Powers covers race, culture and equity for the USA TODAY Network’s Northeast Region and Delaware Online, with a focus on education. Contact her at kepowers@gannett.com or (231) 622-2191, and follow her on Twitter @kpowers01.
Contact Konner Metz at kmetz@gannett.com or follow him on Twitter @konner_metz.
