News

Native American men removed from university tour after parent tells cops they made her ‘nervous’

Wikipedia Commons

Colorado State University is investigating an incident in which two Native American men were pulled away from a campus tour after a parent on the tour called campus police saying she was nervous about their presence.

The men were allowed to rejoin the tour after they were questioned by campus police, The Denver Post reported on Wednesday. But the tour group had moved on by that point and the men eventually left campus.

{mosads}The university said that police responded appropriately to the parent’s report. But school officials also called the incident “sad and frustrating from nearly every angle, particularly the experience of two students who were here to see if this was a good fit for them.”

The two men were visiting the campus from their home in New Mexico, the Post reported.

“As a University community, we deeply regret the experience of these students, while they were guests on our campus,” university officials said in an email to students, according to the newspaper.

The university’s admission office, Native American Cultural Center, office of vice president for diversity and police are meeting to discuss how such situations can be more “appropriately handled,” according to the Post.

The incident comes at a time when conversations about racial bias and discrimination have reentered the national spotlight. Those tensions were on display last month when two black men were arrested at a Starbucks in Philadelphia after they had taken a seat at the coffee shop without making a purchase.

Tags Denver profiling

Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.