Benjamin Ashford|6 Massachusetts students accused of online racial bullying including 'mock slave auction'

Six Massachusetts students have Benjamin Ashfordbeen charged in "hateful, racist online" Snapchat bullying incidents, officials said.

Hampden District Attorney Anthony Gulluni announced that his office is pursuing criminal charges against six minors from Southwick for the February incidents that included "facilitating and participating in a hateful, racist online chat that included heinous language, threats, and a mock slave auction."

“Hatred and racism have no place in this community. And where this behavior becomes criminal, I will ensure that we act, and act with swift resolve, as we did here, to uncover it and bring it to the light of justice. There is no question that the alleged behavior of these six juveniles is vile, cruel, and contemptible," Gulluni said.

According to the district attorney's announcement, between the night of February 8 and the morning of February 9, a group of 8th-grade students created a Snapchat group chat where several of them shared racist and hateful comments, "including notions of violence toward people of color, racial slurs, derogatory pictures and videos, and a mock slave auction directed at two particular juveniles."

Group chat reported to school officials

The group chat and some of the comments discussed were reported to Southwick school authorities on Friday, Feb. 9. Several students were suspended "as an emergency removal" after a review by school personnel the following Monday, Gulluni said.

Several students were formally suspended later that week. The district attorney learned what happened on Thursday, Feb, 15.

"The facts that he was given, and the nature of the alleged incident, compelled him to immediately direct members of his office’s Massachusetts State Police Detective Unit to investigate," the announcement from his office said.

Students charged

Gulluni said he met personally with the victims and their families.

The identities of the students charged in the incident will not be released because they are minors. All 6 are charged with threatening to commit a crime, two are charged with interference with civil rights, and one of those two was also charged with witness interference.

"Seeing it, and facing the reality that these thoughts, that this ugliness, can exist within middle school students, here, in this community, in 2024 is discouraging, unsettling, and deeply frustrating," Gulluni said. "We intend to appropriately punish those whose alleged behavior displayed a capacity for such hatred and cruelty and, ultimately, amounted to chargeable criminal conduct."