Delaware State Women’s Lacrosse Team Accuses Georgian Deputies of ‘Humiliating’ Racial Profiling

“If there’s anything in there that is questionable, tell me now, because if we find it, guess what? We will not be able to help you,” said a White deputy on the bus, according to a video taken by one of the athletes and posted on YouTube. “Marijuana is still illegal in the state of Georgia.”

The incident, which was first described in detail in a story by sophomore lacrosse player Sydney Anderson in the school’s student newspaper, Hornet, came from what the HBCU president says was a case of racial profiling against a team of mostly black players.

“At first, everyone thought it would be a quick traffic stop,” Pamella Jenkins, the team’s head coach, told The Washington Post. “Then we were quickly reminded that was not what was going to happen.”

Now the lawmakers of the university and the state want answers. In a letter issued Monday, Delaware State University President Tony Allen said videos of the incident “clearly show law enforcement members trying to intimidate our student-athletes into confessing to possession of drugs and / or drug equipment.”

“To be clear, nothing illegal was discovered in this search, and all of our coaches and student-athletes respected themselves with dignity through a trying and humiliating process,” Allen said, noting that he has contacted Delaware Governor John Carney (D) and state legislators on the drug search. “They, like me, are outraged. We have also approached Georgia Law Enforcement and are exploring the possibilities for redress – legal and other – available to our student-athletes, our coaches and the university.”

Liberty County Sheriff William Bowman did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday. Bowman, the first black sheriff in county history, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that race did not play a role in the search and maintained that his office would “follow the facts” in the investigation of the incident.

“If anything is proven wrong, the appropriate measures will be taken,” Bowman said. The deputies involved in the search have not been publicly identified.

The women’s lacrosse team from Dover, Del., Finished its season last month against Stetson University in Florida. Shortly after the team’s charter bus began its nearly 14-hour ride home, driver Tim Jones was pulled over on Interstate 95 in Liberty County on April 20, also known as the annual marijuana vacation, Allen wrote. Jones, who is black, was told by the sheriff’s deputies that buses of that size were not allowed to run in the left lane, Anderson told the student newspaper.

When Jones was asked to step off the bus, coaches and players say authorities began a search of the vehicle, indicating that this was more than a routine stop.

“We sit in the bus and wait, and then one of my student-athletes says, ‘They’re pulling our luggage out of the bus,’” Jenkins, 42, told WHYY. “And then we all look, and then we see a dog sniff and walk through our belongings, walk through the bags while they get off the bus.”

When two of the deputies got on the bus, Anderson said they informed the team that their bags and belongings would be checked for drugs, including marijuana, ketamine and heroin. Sophomore accused police of “trying to get the ladies to admit they own the ‘imaginary’ drugs.”

“Officers tried to get them to admit to having drugs while no one was in their possession,” Anderson wrote. “The officers conducted an illegal search because there was no probable cause. [A] the majority of the team members had never experienced a meeting with the police, which made this a traumatic event for them. ”

Jenkins, who is in his third year as head coach, told The Post that the deputy explained to the team that the traffic stop was now a drug search and quickly mentioned marijuana, which made the coach furious.

“We’re talking about exceptional learned athletes, and for them to be exposed to it and seen in that light, I was angry,” she said. “I was also helpless because there was nothing at the moment I could do. I trusted my girls. When I heard the allegations, I thought, ‘This is weird.’ ”

Anderson claimed that deputies “started throwing underwear and other feminine products in an attempt to find drugs.” One of the deputies is heard saying in a video that he would be “grateful” if no drugs were found in the search.

“It will make my job a lot easier,” he said.

The driver was not issued a quote during the stop, Jenkins said.

In the days since Anderson’s story of the incident was published Wednesday, university and Delaware lawmakers have called for more to be done in Georgia to investigate how the search happened. Allen wrote in his letter to the Delaware State community that the school “does not intend to let this or any other incident as it passes by.” Carney said in a Monday statement that the video of the incident was “outrageous, worrying and disappointing.”

“Moments like these should be referred to as part of our country’s complicated history, but they continue to occur with sad regularity in communities across our country,” Carney said. “It’s especially difficult when it’s affecting our own society.”

A trio of three Delaware Democrats in Congress – Sens. Thomas R. Carper and Christopher A. Coons and Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester – repeated Carney in a joint statement on the “deeply disturbing” incident.

“No one should be made to feel insecure or humiliated by law enforcement or any entity that has sworn to protect and serve them,” the statement read. “This is especially true for students who have sought out HBCUs like Delaware State University with a long history of empowering color communities that have all too often been exposed to discrimination and other barriers to opportunity.”

The search is expected to come up again this weekend when former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms speaks at Delaware State’s inaugural ceremonies, according to the Delaware State Journal.

Although it is still unclear if anything will come out of it, Jenkins and the team are calling on the sheriff’s office to apologize for an incident that they say was based on their race. But more than that, Jenkins hopes the story will help prevent another team from facing an allegedly racist-motivated drug search like the one hers is still going on weeks later.

“I hope what comes out of this is accountability,” she said. “I just hope with the outrage from all over the country that people realize that this is not okay and can be prevented. An apology would be nice, but we are more focused on getting the message out so it does not happen anywhere in the country again. ”