Family Calls for Hate Crime Charges in Ardrey Kell Assault

The FBI has been brought in to investigate a potential hate crime in south Charlotte as the family of a 15-year-old female student at Ardrey Kell High School say she was targeted by a male student of the same age due to her Muslim faith earlier this month. 

According to the victim’s family, days of alleged verbal harassment turned physical during a math class on March 7 when her male classmate beat her so badly she had to be taken to the hospital with multiple broken bones in her face and will need to undergo reparative surgery. 

Neither student involved in the incident has been named due to both being minors. 

Both students were handed a 10-day suspension, with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools classifying the incident as a fight, but the family has called for a hate crime investigation, holding a press conference on March 12 to raise awareness about the situation. 

While a CMPD school resource officer assigned to Ardrey took the initial police report of the incident, that was then submitted to the FBI for further investigation, according to a CMPD statement released on March 13.  

“The FBI, rather than the CMPD, holds the ultimate authority in determining which incidents are classified as hate crimes,” read the statement. 

Jibril Hough with the Islamic Center of Charlotte, acting as a spokesperson for the girl’s family, spoke at last week’s press conference. 

“The young man, who happened to be an Ardrey Kell football player, seemed to have plenty of hate and (was) filled with intent,” Hough said.

He said the victim was called slurs leading up to the assault due to the fact that she wears a hijab and is clearly identifiable as a practicing Muslim. 

“This is her own country; she was born and raised here,” he continued, surrounded by family and supporters holding up images of the extensive damage done to the girl’s face.

The family claims the school failed to provide adequate care, requiring the girl’s relatives to take her to the hospital for treatment. School officials allegedly instructed family members not to speak with the media.

“And the officer that was there, he was saying there’s thousands of cases and this will probably never get worked on,” the girl’s brother, Ibraheem Nasif, a 19-year-old graduate of Ardrey Kell, said at the press conference. 

“There were also administrators coming in while my sister was bleeding and everything; they’re trying to get a statement so that they could flip the story when she clearly can’t speak. The nurse herself had to tell the administrators to stop trying to get a statement from her, because she can’t, like she’s not in the right state of mind.”

Nasif said he also experienced anti-Muslim bullying when he attended the school, including being called a terrorist.

The girl’s family is denying claims they say the boy has made that she hit him first. According to her uncle, Nael Abodabba, the boy hit her in the back of the head, causing her to flee the classroom. He then allegedly followed her out into the hallway and continued hitting her until he was pulled off by a teacher. 

“We’ve been talking about it, but this is the culture at Ardrey Kell,” Abodabba told Queen City Nerve. “That’s the school culture. This is acceptable there: bullying, harassment, racism is acceptable there.”

Ardrey Kell High School has been in the news for multiple incidents involving racism in recent years, including allegations of racism against then-president David Switzer that followed the vandalism of a Black Lives Matter mural at the school in 2020. 

That incident was preceded by a 2019 story in which racist texts from basketball players at the school were publicized in the lead-up to their playoff matchup against West Charlotte High School. 

In a social media post on March 17, Hough addressed reports that some people had been spreading the name of the boy who was involved in the assault, who is Black, around the internet and he had been receiving death threats. He emphasized that the incident should not be used as a divisive tool between the Black communities and the Muslim or Arab communities.

“We are indeed pushing for a thorough hate crime investigation and justice to the fullest extent,” Hough wrote. “With that said we do not want anyone to take any revengeful action, nor do we want him and his family to feel unsafe. This matter is in the hands of legal authorities and this is where it should stay.

“May this community please remain peaceful while still pursing justice to its fullest extent,” he continued. “And may we come out of this with a greater understanding and a more peaceful and a more safer school system and community.”

Following last week’s press conference, Hough speculated that he doesn’t believe this is the first case of anti-Muslim harassment at the school. 

“But that’s the first one that came to the bubble, because according to the plan they had, if we kept our mouths shut it would have been done,” said Abodabba.

“What they were hoping (was) to put fear in an immigrant family’s heart,” Hough continued. “Put fear in their heart, and they would go down with their tail between their legs and sob and not do anything. But that’s not what happened. That’s not what happened. We’re not going to allow that.”

“When you talk about hate crimes with officials, law enforcement, no matter how gruesome the attack is, if you can’t prove intent then all you have is the attack,” Hough said. “I’ve gone through this so many times. What’s different this time is we have the intent … It’s clearly a hate crime.” 

Hough told Queen City Nerve this week that the girl is scheduled for the first of multiple reconstructive surgeries this Friday and will need to have a metal plate placed in her face, which he called “a daily reminder of the attack.”

The incident occurred just a few days before the Council on American-Islamic Relations released a new report showing that discrimination and attacks against Muslims and Arabs in the US hit a record high in 2024.

Read more: Local Activists Rally Behind Mahmoud Khalil

Hough and the family have called for the boy responsible for the attack to be expelled for the rest of the school year rather than given a suspension. 

During a separate press conference also on March 12, CMS Chief Operations Officer Tim Ivey insisted that Ardrey Kell officials “followed all policies and procedures as outlined in the board policy manual and student code of conduct” and denied accusations that school officials told the family not to speak with the media, adding that the school resource officer “immediately initiated the appropriate investigative processes.”

As of March 18, no criminal charges or further school punishment has been announced by either the FBI or CMS.