HBCU Students Searched by Dog Say They Were Profiled During Police Stop. Sheriffs Say Otherwise
A pair of South Carolina sheriffs are disputing claims that they targeted a bus full of students from Shaw University in October.
As BLACK ENTERPRISE previously reported, on October 5, 18 students and two staff advisors from the HBCU located in North Carolina had their bus stopped by police in South Carolina while on their way to the Center for Financial Advancement Conference in Atlanta.
Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright and Cherokee County Sheriff Steve Mueller held a joint press conference Monday disputing Shaw University President Paulette Dillard‘s version of events, including that police dogs searched through the student’s luggage. The two officers acknowledged there was a police dog on site, but said none of the students were asked to leave the bus and at no point was the dog near the students.
“President Dillard said they were searched by blood-thirsty dogs. There was one dog; he was on a leash. Students were never even close to that dog,” Wright, said according to ABC News. “None of the students were even asked off the bus.”
Body camera footage of the stop shows the dog sniffing passengers’ luggage and the sheriff handling the dog opening student’s bags so the dog could sniff them as well. Dillard said the situation would’ve been different if the students were white.
“This behavior of targeting Black students is unacceptable and will not be ignored nor tolerated,” she said.
“Had the students been white, I doubt this detention and search would have occurred.”
Wright said, “I wish racism would die the ugly, cruel death it deserves. And if anything we are ever doing is racist, I want to know it, I want to fix it and I want to never let it happen again, but this case right here has nothing to do with racism.”
The video also showed the driver of the bus being searched for weapons after grabbing candy out of his pocket. The driver was issued a warning for the stop and the bus eventually continued to Atlanta.
Wright said since the incident he has reached out to Dillard but has not heard back from her. A similar incident occurred in May when the Alabama State University women’s lacrosse team was stopped and searched in Georgia while returning from a tournament in Florida.
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