EVERETT — His parents couldn’t protect the teenage boy from the hateful words, and the hurt that caused was there in their tears and their quavering voices.
Her son is compassionate and kind, the woman told a Snohomish County Superior Court judge Monday. She and her husband raised him to respect others, no matter what.
“My son is not a monkey,” she said. “He was in my womb for nine months. I didn’t give birth to a monkey.”
The woman referenced part of the hateful messages two Edmonds-Woodway High School students posted online last year directed at African-American classmates. The boys are white.
The teens’ posts praised a man who killed nine people at a black church in South Carolina. One of the boys wrote about bringing a gun and Ku Klux Klan outfit to school and leaving behind dead bodies and blood-spattered walls. He and the other boy also made threats to lynch one of their African-American classmates and beat another.
The teens told police that they wrote the racist messages but didn’t plan to carry out their threats. They said they were trying to be funny. One boy claimed he got the ideas from the Internet and media.
The boys, both 16, pleaded guilty Monday to malicious harassment, a felony. Judge Millie Judge declined to grant their request for a deferred sentence, which would have spared the teens a criminal record if they completed community service, probation and other court imposed requirements.
A deferred sentence “would not be justice for the victim and this community,” Judge said.
The words that were written were not a joke, she said. They created fear and disrespected an entire group of people.
“This is not to be tolerated,” Judge said.
She sentenced the boys to a year of probation, 50 hours of community service and eight days in detention. One boy already had served his time in juvenile lockup. The other boy must report to Denney Juvenile Justice Center next week to begin his sentence.
The judge also ordered the boys to write apology letters to the victim.
Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Leanne Foster had requested that the boys be locked up for a month, the maximum under state law. She also wanted them to serve their community service for any organization that focuses on eliminating race-based crimes.
The Herald is not naming the teens because they were prosecuted as juveniles.
The judge was told that online posts were out of character for both teens. They don’t have any prior criminal convictions. Judge also was told that the incident has brought the boys and their parents closer together.
“This event almost tore my family apart,” the victim’s father said Monday.
He and his wife feared for their children’s safety after they were shown what the defendants had posted on a private Facebook group.
The messages came to the attention of police Dec. 7 after a student reported seeing the posts and contacted school officials. The boys were expelled from school. Officers interviewed one of the boys and he voluntarily showed them his Facebook account and another private online group with a racist name. There were seven members listed as part of the private group. The posts mainly were derogatory messages directed at African Americans. Police also discovered the threats made to other students.
“I had the rope in my hand and I really really wanted to put it around his neck and choke him the (expletive) out,” one boy wrote.
“That would have been (expletive) funny,” his friend posted.
The victim’s mother told the judge that she understands that people have the right to express their opinions, but she couldn’t understand the hate directed at her child.
“I have always taught my children to respect everybody,” the victim’s father said. “Everybody is the same.”
Both boys apologized Monday. One teen’s father also told the victim and his parents that he was sorry for his son’s actions and the fear it caused. If he’d known what his son was writing, he would have stopped him, the man said. He was ashamed of his son’s actions, he told the victim’s father.
The families gathered outside the courtroom after Monday’s hearing. Fathers shook hands and mothers hugged.
Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463, hefley@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @dianahefley
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