Threat of racist violence keeps Charlottesville schools closed

(Reuters) – Schools in Charlottesville, Virginia, remained closed for the second consecutive day Friday as police investigated a threat of racist violence against non-white students that had been put online, officials said.

City leaders have been working to ease racial tensions in the city since a white nationalist rally in August 2017 sank into violence, a white nationalist having killed a counter-protester and injuring others after the violence. Driving in a crowd.

A threat against Charlottesville High School was reported to police Wednesday afternoon, according to the police department.

School officials then quickly decided to close all schools in the city. According to US Census Bureau data, African-Americans make up about 19% of Charlottesville's population of nearly 50,000.

"We would like to acknowledge and condemn the fact that this threat was a racist charge," Charlottesville City Schools said in a letter to parents and posted on its website Thursday night, informing of Friday's closure. "All staff and the school board are supportive of our colored students."

The police have not identified the specific threat she is investigating.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported that a person claiming to be a student at Charlottesville High School, one of the largest schools in the area, had warned white students to stay home so they could shoot down students. non white dead in the course of an act of "ethnic cleansing. "

The white nationalists involved in the Charlottesville violence in 2017 have been widely condemned.

But US President Donald Trump aroused sharp criticism in the days following the Charlottesville rally for equating white supremacists with counter-protesters and said "both sides" were to blame.