BSU students march in support of ' Jena 6'
By GAIL KOCH
gkoch@muncie.gannett.com
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MUNCIE — About 100 students marched on the campus of Ball State University this morning to show their support for the "Jena 6," high school students in Jena, La., facing criminal charges in the beating of a white classmate.
With individuals holding signs that read “Free Jena 6” and “Don’t let history repeat itself,” the group began the march at 8 a.m. at LaFollette Field and ended at the Student Center off University Avenue.
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Ebony Strong, president of Ball State’s Black Student Association, organizers of the march, said she was pleased with the turnout at this morning’s event.
“We felt like this was a good thing for BSA to do. That, even though we are in Muncie, we can still make a difference and show the people this is affecting in Louisiana how much we care.”
Nationwide, similar rallies and marches are being held today to protest the criminal charges against six black high school students charged with crimes related to their alleged involvement in an assault of a white teenager in Jena, La. late last year.
The six were charged a few months after the local prosecutor declined to charge three white high school students who hung nooses in a tree on their high school grounds. Five were initially charged with attempted murder; the sixth was charged as a juvenile, according to Associated Press reports.
The white teen who was beaten, Justin Barker, was knocked unconscious, his face badly swollen and bloodied, though he was able to attend a school function later that night.
Mychal Bell, 16 at the time of the attack, is the only one of the “Jena 6" to be tried so far. He was convicted on an aggravated second-degree battery count that could have sent him to prison for 15 years, but the conviction was overturned last week when a state appeals court said he should not have been tried as an adult.
Today's protest had been planned to coincide with Bell’s sentencing, but organizers decided to press ahead even after the conviction was thrown out. Bell remains in jail while prosecutors prepare an appeal, the AP reported.
By GAIL KOCH
gkoch@muncie.gannett.com
19 Comments
MUNCIE — About 100 students marched on the campus of Ball State University this morning to show their support for the "Jena 6," high school students in Jena, La., facing criminal charges in the beating of a white classmate.
With individuals holding signs that read “Free Jena 6” and “Don’t let history repeat itself,” the group began the march at 8 a.m. at LaFollette Field and ended at the Student Center off University Avenue.
ADVERTISEMENT
Ebony Strong, president of Ball State’s Black Student Association, organizers of the march, said she was pleased with the turnout at this morning’s event.
“We felt like this was a good thing for BSA to do. That, even though we are in Muncie, we can still make a difference and show the people this is affecting in Louisiana how much we care.”
Nationwide, similar rallies and marches are being held today to protest the criminal charges against six black high school students charged with crimes related to their alleged involvement in an assault of a white teenager in Jena, La. late last year.
The six were charged a few months after the local prosecutor declined to charge three white high school students who hung nooses in a tree on their high school grounds. Five were initially charged with attempted murder; the sixth was charged as a juvenile, according to Associated Press reports.
The white teen who was beaten, Justin Barker, was knocked unconscious, his face badly swollen and bloodied, though he was able to attend a school function later that night.
Mychal Bell, 16 at the time of the attack, is the only one of the “Jena 6" to be tried so far. He was convicted on an aggravated second-degree battery count that could have sent him to prison for 15 years, but the conviction was overturned last week when a state appeals court said he should not have been tried as an adult.
Today's protest had been planned to coincide with Bell’s sentencing, but organizers decided to press ahead even after the conviction was thrown out. Bell remains in jail while prosecutors prepare an appeal, the AP reported.
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