Representatives for CSU said Friday they regretted an incident in which the teenage brothers were subjected to a police pat-down during a visit to the university. They were detained after a parent on the tour of the university became suspicious and notified campus police.
CSU invited Thomas Kanewakeron Gray, 19, and Skanahwati Lloyd Gray, 17, back to the school for a VIP visit around the Fort Collins, Colorado campus, but said the school has not yet heard back from the boys’ mother.
“We’d like the opportunity to speak with Ms. Gray and her sons but we have not heard back from the family,” CSU officials said Friday in an email. “We ask them to please get in touch with us at their convenience.”
“As a university community, we deeply regret the experience of these students while they were guests on our campus,” they wrote. “The fact that these two students felt unwelcome on our campus while here as visitors runs counter to our principles of community.”
The Gray brothers, who are Mohawk, visited CSU on Monday, a trip they had reportedly planned for some time. Thomas Kanewakeron Gray is a student at Northern New Mexico College hoping to transfer schools. His brother is a senior at Santa Fe Indian School, which serves Native American students from across the Southwestern United States.
The boys arrived on the tour late after becoming lost while trying to find the school. After they joined the group, according to a statement released by CSU, the parent of another prospective applicant called campus police “because she was nervous about the presence of two young men” and was wary about their silence.
“They are not, definitely not, a part of the tour,” the 45-year-old white woman told campus security . “And their behavior is just really odd. And I’ve never called, ever, about anybody. But they joined our tour. They won’t give their names.” She indicated she believed the boys were Latinx, that they were “lying” in the responses they gave the group, and said their clothing had “weird symbolism or wording on it.” One of the boys was reportedly wearing a shirt for the metal band Cattle Decapitation.
Campus police arrived and pulled the two boys aside, separating them from the tour group. A subsequent search and questioning revealed they were meant to be on the tour, but by then the group had moved on and the teenagers were unable to locate them. Instead, they drove seven hours back to their home in Santa Cruz, New Mexico.