Plastic black babies center of lawsuit filed by teen charged with hate crime

Former Brandon Valley student accuses school, police, JDC of unlawful response to incident characterized as 'prank'

Miniature plastic baby charms as sold on Amazon.com.

A teen girl who spent a night in juvenile detention on a hate crime charge claims multiple governments violated her constitutional rights.

A former Brandon Valley High School student who hung miniature black plastic toy babies from a school bathroom ceiling is suing her former school as well as the city of Brandon’s police department and the Minnehaha County Juvenile Detention Center, alleging discrimination and due process violations.

“There were no statements, threats of violence, or anything of a nature that could have reasonably led anyone to believe that plaintiff or the other students who participated in the prank were a threat to anyone at the school or intended to harass or threaten any other individual,” reads a 22-page lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court last week by Peyton Van Roekel, who was a sophomore at Brandon Valley High School in February 2022.

That’s when Van Roekel and two classmates were arrested on felony hate crime charges after the discovery by school staff of miniature babies appearing to have dark skin complexions tied to the ceiling of a bathroom at the school.

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