An HBCU lacrosse team’s bus was searched by Georgia State troopers and some are calling the incident racially motivated.
On April 20, the Delaware State University lacrosse team was traveling through Georgia, after playing the final game of the season against Stetson in Florida on April 19.
The officers claimed they pulled the bus, and its Black driver, over because buses aren’t allowed to ride in the left lane. Once the troopers got on the bus, facing mostly Black faces on a vehicle with about 30 people according to various reports, the officers announced they would search through every passenger’s luggage. Video captured by freshman Saniya Craft captured the exact moment.
“If there is anything in y’all’s luggage, we’re probably going to find it,” the officer said on the video. “OK? I’m not looking for a little bit of marijuana, but if I find some, I’m pretty sure you guys’ chaperones are going to be a little disappointed in you if we find it.”
Drug-sniffing dogs and officers went through each individual’s luggage. Nothing illegal was found in the search.
The story gained national attention after sophomore player Sydney Anderson wrote about it in DSU’s student newspaper The Hornet, which was published online on May 5.
Craft is related to Elijah McClain.
“I’ve realized what happens when police take advantage of their privilege and compromise their job,” Craft said in a statement published in The Hornet. “After seeing the police brutally murder my relative, I was petrified for what would happen to my teammates and me. As women of color, we are constantly facing adversity and this was an incident we had to overcome together.”
The school’s president, Tony Allen, a White House board adviser for the HBCU Initiative, said the university has explored legal and alternative options of how to move forward with the situation.
“We do not intend to let this or any other incident like it pass idly by,” Allen’s official statement read. “We are prepared to go wherever the evidence leads us. We have video. We have allies. Perhaps more significantly, we have the courage of our convictions.”
