A series of racist and homophobic text messages sent last week to an African-American student running for senior class president at an upscale Jersey City Catholic high school has caused administrators to postpone the election and launch an investigation with the help of local police.
According to a police report from the Jersey City Police Department, an African-American male student running for senior class president at Saint Peter’s Preparatory School received at least two anonymous text messages last Thursday, urging him to drop out of the race.
One messages read, “Drop out right now, no one even likes you … you dress like a f–.” The other warned, “We have never and will never have a n– lead our school.”
The student, who has not been identified publicly, reported the incident to his father, who contacted school administrators and filed a police report. Officials said the sender of the text messages used a special smartphone application called Text Me that allows users to send text messages anonymously.
About 40 percent of the student population is non-white, and tuition tops $13,000 a year. Police said the incident is being investigated as a hate crime.