An altered screenshot of Brown County Schools’ athletics department webpage circulated on social media last week and sparked an investigation into who was responsible.
The screenshot made it look like the website contained a sentence with the N-word.
Superintendent Laura Hammack sent a message on ParentSquare the morning of Dec. 29 notifying the school community of the “inappropriate and troubling post.”
Hammack and Brown County High School Principal Matt Stark were made aware of the screenshot on Dec. 27, when a parent sent them an email. Law enforcement was notified the next morning, on Dec. 28, Hammack said.
In her message to parents, Hammack called the screenshot “deeply disrespectful.”
The school district’s website was not hacked, she said. It appeared that a person took a screenshot of the website, then placed new text over what is actually written on the athletics page.
“Because of the nature of this post, law enforcement is engaged and we intend to pursue legal action to the fullest extent allowable once the origins of the post are identified,” Hammack said in her message to families.
Last week, Sheriff Scott Southerland said the sheriff’s department is willing to help identify whoever is responsible for the image and “try to hold them accountable on some level for their actions.”
“It’s probably some kid who doesn’t realize the ramifications of their actions and how it reflects poorly on the rest of us,” Southerland said.
“We’re not deserving of something like that,” he said about the county in general.
Anyone with information on the origin of the post is encouraged to contact the school district and sheriff’s department.
If someone wishes to submit anonymous information, they may do so by using the district’s anonymous reporting tool at brownco-in.safeschoolsalert.com. All submissions will be turned over to law enforcement for their review, Hammack said in the ParentSquare message.
Hammack reiterated the district’s policy against discrimination and harassment: “Brown County Schools does not discriminate or tolerate harassment on the basis of a protected class including but not limited to race, color, sex, gender, sexual preference, ethnicity, religion, family makeup, socioeconomic class, and able-bodiedness in the programs or activities which it operates,” it states.
When asked about possible criminal charges related to the post, Brown County Prosecutor Ted Adams said that a person cannot be charged with a hate crime in Indiana. “Hate crime in Indiana is a sentencing enhancement if a person is found guilty of a crime,” Adams said.
The enhancement can increase the penalty of a crime, but a person cannot be solely charged with a hate crime, he further explained.
“Without knowing any facts whatsoever (on this situation), we would probably look to see if the act was, one, a form of harassment, or, two, a form of intimidation,” Adams said.
“Both statutes are, in my opinion, poorly drafted and tough to enforce in the real world.”
Adams said a “general rule of thumb” he tells people is that bigotry cannot be criminalized in Indiana because one is free to “possess a hateful or prejudicial ideology.”
“We can, however, enhance penalties for crimes motivated by prejudice. The question will always revolve on whether a criminal act occurred,” he said.
