One month after a bus carrying the Delaware State University women’s lacrosse team was searched by police in Georgia in what many have called racial profiling, DSU administrators have officially filed a Civil Rights and Title VI Discrimination Complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice.
The request signed by the president and vice president of the historically Black university asks for an investigation into the Liberty County Sheriff’s Department and the six officers – all of whom were white – who went through the students’ belongings “without any reasonable suspicion of a crime whatsoever.”
BACKGROUND:Here’s what we know about Delaware State University student bus stopped in Georgia
When DSU first released a response to the traffic stop, Liberty County Sheriff William Bowman denied that a search occurred. Bowman continued to defend any accusations of wrongdoing even after body camera footage showed officers going through athletes’ luggage, including toiletries and medications.
In light of this, DSU administration wrote it has “little faith that any internal investigation by the Sheriff’s Office will be conducted in the comprehensive and unbiased manner that this situation deserves.”
Delaware Attorney General Kathleen Jennings also requested a formal investigation into the incident by the Department of Justice on May 11, saying she was “deeply troubled” by what happened. She had only learned of the incident four days prior.
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DSU President Tony Allen did not reveal the university also planned to take legal action until the following day in an interview with Delaware Online/The News Journal, though he would not specify what remedies he would be seeking at the time.
The delay drew criticism from the Delaware NAACP, which said in a statement it “subscribes to the theorem that ‘justice delayed is justice denied.'” In a press conference Friday, Allen said he took “full responsibility” for the decision to wait until the school “understood (its) legal recourse.”
The wait likely would have lasted even longer if not for an article detailing the traffic stop published in the student-led Hornet Newspaper by a lacrosse player on May 4. DSU spokesman Carlos Holmes said the administration did not know that an article was being written, but said they did plan to release a statement “eventually.”
HOW IT HAPPENED:Timeline details Delaware State University bus stop in Georgia, fallout since
Keynote speakers at DSU commencement ceremonies last week touched on the incident in their speeches. At undergraduate commencement on Saturday, former Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms compared the lacrosse team to the Freedom Riders, a group of activists fighting for racial equality in the 60s.
DSU also acknowledged that historical racism in the request to the Department of Justice, stating that “surely the DSU Women’s Lacrosse Team is not the first or only group of people — more particularly, people of color — to have been subjected to this type of illegal behavior.”
Allen said he raised these concerns to Bowman directly in a prior conversation. However, the sheriff reportedly told Allen that while he understood the historical context, his officers did not search the bus because the team was Black.
MORE COVERAGE:DSU player’s dad says bus search happened because team was predominantly Black
“Our students and staff deserve to know that this brazen, illegal, and discriminatory conduct will not go unchecked,” the administration said in its complaint.
The U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division can take “several weeks” to respond to complaints, according to the department’s website. It is unclear whether DSU will continue to update the public on the investigation.
Holmes said that until there’s a “resolution,” no DSU officials or anyone involved in the traffic stop – which he explicitly lists as including lacrosse coach Pamella Jenkins and all student athletes – will not provide any more comments.
Send story tips or ideas to Hannah Edelman at hedelman@delawareonline.com. For more reporting, follow them on Twitter at @h_edelman.
