An African-American high school student in West Virginia found a racist drawing with his name written next to it in the guest locker room before a basketball game last week.
The horrific illustration showed a stick figure with the face colored in hanging from a noose. An arrow connected the image to the name “Jace,” local news station WVVA reported.
Jace Colucci, a member of the Westside High School team, is the lone black player on the roster, according to CNN.
The incident occurred Friday ahead of Westside’s game against rival high school Wyoming East.
Colucci’s mother, who refers to her son as biracial and black, told WVVA that her 17-year-old did not mention the drawing until after the game.
“He played the game with his head held high,” Erica Colucci Ayers told the TV outlet based in Bluefield, W.V.
An investigation into the incident is now being handled by West Virginia state police, an official with the Wyoming County Schools district confirmed to CNN.
Ayers said her son’s race was also targeted at a 2019 game between Westside and Wyoming East, and that she’d been sent a video from that instance that features distressing language.
“It was a video of kids chanting: hang Jace, hang Jace.”
The Wyoming County prosecuting attorney told WVVA that he’s looking into whether Friday’s incident could be considered a hate crime.
