Danbury police reviewing videos of taunting incident

A screen shot of a video posted to Twitter on Friday shows a man waving a Donald Trump sign and shouting profanities at Danbury High School students. A screen shot of a video posted to Twitter on Friday shows a man waving a Donald Trump sign and shouting profanities at Danbury High School students. Photo: / Photo: / Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Danbury police reviewing videos of taunting incident 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

DANBURY - As police debated whether to file charges against a Trump supporter caught on video last week taunting minority high schoolers, educators were using the confrontation as a teachable moment.

“We have to respect other people’s rights to celebrate their views,” Danbury High School Principal Dan Donovan said Monday after addressing the state’s largest high school over the public address system. “And while this doesn’t give that gentleman the right to come and harass our kids, our kids didn’t act appropriately the whole time either.”

Donovan noted that one high-schooler appeared to punch the man, who was waving a Trump campaign sign, after he shouted an obscenity at minority students: “You’ll be out of the country, you f------ illegals.”

The man, who has not been identified, was a passenger in a car that came to pick up a high-schooler after class ended, and was on school grounds legally, Donovan said.

Police officers assigned to the school did not find out about the altercation until after it had happened - and that is part of what concerned Donovan.

“I told the kids that there is no rational explanation for someone who shows up and starts acting like that, so they have to be in the right frame of mind and tell an administrator or a (school resource officer),” Donovan said. “We can’t let a situation get down to physical violence.”

Two videos of the incident, which occurred several hours after the inauguration of President Donald Trump, were posted online by several students, prompting many to press Mayor Mark Boughton on Twitter to do something.

Boughton responded that while police did not witness the conflict and left the scene without filing a report, they were taking up the investigation again after watching the videos.

On Monday, a police spokesman said that investigation was continuing.

“New information has come to light since the incident was initially investigated that needs to be examined,” Det. Lt. Christian Carroccio said on Monday. “Once the information has been reviewed and followed up with, a determination will be made what action needs to be done.”

At the very least, Boughton said, the students deserve an apology from the man.

The man did not press charges against the student who punched him, he added.

It is not the first time that Danbury high schoolers have been taunted about their ethnicity since the election.

In mid-November, Boughton asked for an apology from Wilton High School after students there chanted “build the wall” during a football game against Danbury, an apparent reference to Trump’s plan to build a wall along the Mexican border.

Danbury is the fastest-growing city in the state, in large part due to immigration. It is one of the most diverse cities in the country, with a school system where 40 languages are spoken.

Wilton Principal Robert O’Donnell sent a letter of apology to Danbury, which Donovan read to students.

The latest incident prompted a social justice group to call for programs to prevent more acts of intolerance.

“We are concerned that this behavior is a result of the intolerant, insensitive and irresponsible rhetoric of Donald Trump and enabled by those in power who do not condemn his hate speech and his policies,” read a statement by the group, the Danbury Area Justice Network. “We call on the members of the Board of Education and the officials of the city of Danbury to intervene to protect our children while they are in school, as well as in public in Danbury.”

Donovan responded that the man in question has already been informed that he must get permission from the principal’s office before he is allowed on campus again.

“This was strike one, two and three for him,” Donovan said.

Meanwhile, in a similar but unrelated display of intolerance, police in Newtown were confident that arrests are pending in the weekend robbery of a liquor store, where suspects set the place on fire and apparently sprayed a racial slur and swastikas on the building before fleeing.

“With the work of our detectives, in conjunction with state police, I am quite confident that we are going to be able to make arrests soon,” police Chief James Viadero said Monday.

The chief said he called in state police investigators because of the complexity of the crime scene, and because of the novelty of the crime.

The typical pattern of robberies is that suspects leave as quickly as possible, and do not take time to set a fire or leave potentially incriminating evidence, such as racial slurs.

“I don’t think we have ever had an incident like this before,” the chief said. “The whole case is very peculiar, which is why we called in state police.”

RRyser@newstimes.com; 203-731-3342