Report: No evidence of racial bias in Smith College employee calling police on student eating lunch
Oumou Kanoute was eating her lunch in a building on campus when an employee called campus police to investigate her presence.
The Smith College employee who called campus police in July after seeing a black student who “seemed to be out of place” in a building that was in use by the school’s summer programs did not act out of racial bias, according to a report released by the college on Monday.
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The student, Oumou Kanoute, who wrote about the incident on social media, said she was just eating her lunch and did nothing to warrant having the police contacted other than “be black.” She said she was “terrified” to return to school after the encounter.
The liberal arts college in Northampton hired outside attorneys from the Brookline-based Sanghavi Law Office to investigate the July 31 incident, which sparked national attention, and determine whether the school’s affirmative action policy was violated.
Investigators wrote in the report that after interviewing 11 people — in connection with the incident itself as well as the existing policies and practices on campus — sufficient evidence wasn’t found to show that Kanoute was discriminated against.
“The investigation determined that the Caller had a legitimate, non-discriminatory reason for contacting the Campus Police, and there was insufficient information to conclude that the Caller’s stated reason was a pretext for discrimination on the bases of the [student]’s race or color,” the report reads.
The law firm found at times there were conflicting details and gaps in the accounts of those interviewed in connection with the call to police, but the investigators concluded that none of the college staff members connected to the incident violated the school’s non-discrimination policy.
“There were questions and concerns raised, but also plausible non-discriminatory explanations,” Smith College President Kathleen McCartney said in a statement on Monday.
She said she knows “members of our community will have a range of reactions to the report” and she hopes that the campus can work toward creating a “more inclusive Smith College together.”
“After reading the investigation, I suspect many of you will conclude, as I did, that in investigations like this, as in our daily interactions, it is impossible to rule out the potential role of implicit racial bias,” she said. “Let us begin with this recognition as we embrace the work that lies ahead.”
McCartney issued a public apology to Kanoute on Aug. 2 for the incident, and, according to Smith, the school has offered “restorative justice mediation” between the student and the employee who called the police.
“The report validates and affirms the student’s lived experience, notably the fear she felt when approached by a Campus Police officer,” McCartney said in her statement. “I recognize that this event has been painful for the student, and that the publication of this report will bring this pain to the forefront again. It is clear to me that we need to foster the capacity for person-to-person conversations—on our campus and in our wider communities—thereby preventing unnecessary escalation involving the police.”
ACLU staff attorney Carl Takei told the Daily Hampshire Gazette on Monday that the college’s current policies are at fault. The ACLU is representing Kanoute, who could not be immediately reached for comment.
“Smith’s investigators determined no policies were violated based on a key finding of its own report: The college’s policies provide abysmal guidance on how to deal with race-based suspicious person situations, for both individuals making the calls and dispatchers fielding them,” he told the newspaper.
Kanoute should never have been reported to the police in the first place, Takei argued.
“Any reasonable person looking at Oumou on the couch would have seen a black student doing nothing threatening or suspicious,” he said.
The employee who made the call to campus police was initially placed on leave, but his status with the college was unclear on Tuesday.
“The report concluded that no employees violated Smith College policies,” the college said on its website. “Therefore, the college does not anticipate pursuing any adverse employment action in connection with the events of July 31.”
Smith said it is also “carefully considering” the recommendations made in the report by investigators, which include that the college re-evaluate its protocols and staff training for reporting “suspicious” sightings on campus to focus specifically on behaviors rather than people.
“The report identifies two areas for improvement regarding employee policies and trainings as well as policies and trainings specific to campus police, all with the aim of reducing the likelihood of bias-related incidents,” McCartney said. “These recommendations are closely aligned with suggestions we have received from the student. I want to assure you that the college will pursue these recommendations; in fact, relevant departments on campus have already begun to design and implement new procedures.”
Read the full report below:
https://www.scribd.com/doc/391882410/Smith-Investigation-Report
