a group of Collingswood High School students are facing potential bias crime charges after they allegedly organized a white Student Union in response to the school's black student union that according to the school superintendent evolved into something more characteristic of a hate group this isn't the first bias incident to be alleged in the small Camden County suburb the town has been dealing with escalating racial tensions for years that have more recently come to a head Matt Skoufalos has been covering it all as the founder and editor of NJ pen and he joins me with the latest Matt so good to have you on the show um really disturbing of what's been happening at the Collingswood High School can you give us an update on uh how these students have been disciplined what they did exactly sure um I think to give you an update i' kind of have to go back to a year ago um when there were student walkouts at Collingswood High School um because uh minority students were protesting what they described as bias treatment by their teachers by the staff Administration um and what we've seen now is a year after that we're actually marking uh evidence of stuff that it's also coming from their peers in the school as well so a year ago there was this big student walk out um where they were trying to draw attention to some of the cultural issues and race issues ises that are rearing their heads in high school um from that there was a community meeting where there was a lot of emotional testimonial delivered by people who've lived in down for a long time talking about their experiences of this nature um there were efforts made since then to form a CommunityWide Dei committee that's outside of the school that communicates on issues throughout the burough uh there was a black student union formed at the high school uh Collins would held its first juneth celebration as a community the following summer and then now we wrap around back to where we are here uh about a year later from from the stuff that happened in 2023 and what we saw was right before spring break there were a number of students who were given School discipline um because they apparently have organized a white Student Union um which at some point I guess was meant to be an ironic response to black student union um and then superintendent friend McDow told me they stopped being whatever you could call a joke even if that is such a thing with matters like this uh and just started functioning in his words was a as a traditional kind of a hatred um and so couple days before spring break there was um there were slurs that were defaced on another student's car that student is white kids I talk to believe that's a case of mistaken identity on Whose vehicle it was and aside from that there were also incidents of bullying harassment racial intimidation U that were made by white students against black students is what the allegations say are these students Matt facing uh charges for any of this so it's being investigated by the Kon County prosecutor's office it's being investigated by Collingswood Police uh right now the prosecutor's office has just said that it's an open investigation and they won't comment they're still gathering information um superintendent McDow says to me it is sort of this gray area where they're going to have to determine if they bring charges if the defendants choose not to press charges if the defendants were to choose to press they could probably bring charges immediately what's behind yeah what's behind what seems like now um many years of racial tension in Collingswood um when you talk to people who are from that area uh they see it as a as a pretty Progressive place and yet we know through these students uh and families testimony as you mentioned that they've been facing incidents like these for years I always tell everybody that Collingswood is a cipher um and it is what you want it to be for whatever group you happen to be um whether that is an ethnic group a racial group uh a sexuality or gender orientation Callingwood can be a proxy for whatever you want to put your dreams on to and I think a lot of people do that um and so what the school chalks this up to is gentrification in the neighborhood um and if you go back over the census data for the past decade you're seeing wealthier families moving into town it's getting less white um demographically um but I think also you have to acknowledge that this stuff has been happening and people are not really needing it for whatever reason in whatever way that would have an impact um going back to I'm going to say 2011 or 2012 there was a story about a basketball coach named Joe mlin who was removed of his coaching duties he sued the district and said it was because he wasn't playing enough white players according to what he claimed were his administrative duties or his uh instructions and then from there at that meeting you had people coming up at that time saying um yeah when I was a young kid riding my bike through this town I would have rocks thrown at me because I was black um there were other people at the meeting last year who talked about their children growing up in a town where they had never had any sort of gang involvement being told that their kids in elementary school were flashing gang signs um there are black kids who say that they there are white a majority white Almost uniformally White staff um that disciplines them differently than they discipline the white kids uh you know it's you have to believe people when they're saying that these are their lived experiences um and you also have to acknowledge if this is in your face every day it's not getting better whatever the issues are they're still persistent um part of it I imagine has to do with whatever the culture is in the school part of it has to do with the climate from the homes uh it could all be aggravated by the way that people interact post pandemic sure a lot of paral experiences a lot of toxic internet culture carryover right um but I did actually speak to two students last night as a matter of fact who talked about what they described as a a casual attitude uh around use of racial slurs by their white counterparts uh and basically what they said is it seems like female students get the worst of it from white male students um if they're called out on it these students May shrink from the things that they were saying they often don't do it around other male students or in groups where teachers might be within earshot but um it's an ongoing thing where these students describe this beginning even in element School wow very widespread Matt Skoufalos Matt Skoufalos is the editor and founder of NJ pen which covers Camden County Matt thank you so much thanks Brianna