A group of female college athletes traveling back to campus after a game had an unusual and terrifying encounter with police.
The Delaware State University's women's lacrosse team was returning home from a game in Jacksonville, Florida, by bus. The HBCU students were on I-95 when their bus was pulled over for a minor traffic infraction, riding in the left lane instead of using it for passing.
You'd expect this sort of thing to just take a few minutes, but chaos ensued when the officers decided to search the bus. Apropos of nothing, they used drug-sniffing dogs to search the bus and the bags of the players on board, most of whom were Black women.
The bus driver was pulled over after driving a large vehicle in the wrong lane. Bodycam footage of the incident shows Liberty County officers with the driver's license. He then says over the radio that he believes someone on the bus may have something illegal. Why did he think that? Allegedly, because the driver was "talkative."
"There's a bunch of dang school girls on the bus, there's probably some weed, maybe," says the officer, who has not been named. The date of this interaction was April 20, otherwise known as 4/20, a day for celebrating weed.
"He [the driver] seems a little talkative. He's been driving for 20 years going from Jacksonville to Delaware.”
Anyone with working knowledge of college sports understands that student-athletes sacrifice a lot for their positions, and almost always that includes the college party experimental stage their peers are going for. It's why it's unusual to see a group of any athletes and assume drugs are present. Still, that didn't stop one officer from getting on the bus.
Police bodycam footage, as well as cellphone video from one of the students on board, capture the deputy addressing the women.
"If there is anything in y'alls luggage, we're probably going to find it, OK," he said.
"I'm not looking for a little bit of marijuana, but I'm pretty sure you guys' chaperones are probably going to be disappointed in you if we find any."
"So if there is something in there that's questionable, please tell me now," he continued.
"Because if we find it, guess what, we're not going to be able to help you. You are in the state of Georgia; marijuana is still illegal."
It's interesting to note that marijuana legalization just passed the Delaware Senate this month, May 2022, nearly a full month after this interaction took place. Marijuana is only allowed for medicinal use in Florida, so it continues to be strange why this officer felt so strongly that he was going to find something.
Students cooperated with a search of the bags and suitcases on the bus. A K-9 unit was included in the search, but ultimately nothing was found on board and the team was let go. Tony Allen, the president of Delaware State University, was outraged at the unnecessary intimidation of college student athletes, many of whom are Black women.
"To be clear, nothing illegal was discovered in this search, and all of our coaches and student-athletes comported themselves with dignity throughout a trying and humiliating process," he said in a statement.
"It should not be lost on any of us how thin any day's line is between customary and extraordinary, between humdrum and exceptional, between safe and victimized," he said.
"That is true for us all but particularly so for communities of color and the institutions who serve them. The resultant feelings of disempowerment are always the aggressors' object."
Delaware Governor John Carney called the search "upsetting and disappointing." Delaware's Attorney General Kathy Jennings has asked for a federal civil rights review of the stop.
Tim Jones, the bus driver who was pulled over, spoke about his own thoughts on the situation as a Black man.
"I felt that of course we were in Georgia, there's some racial issues and there's racial issues related," he shared with DSU's student newspaper, The Hornet.
"I really had a problem with them going through our stuff," he continued.
"There's a bus full of females and it was invasive of them to go through personal items. It was more than what they said about being in the left lane because they brought dogs."
"When I saw the police come on the bus and then accuse us of having narcotics, I was reminded that living as black women in America, you are scrutinized when just trying to live," head women's lacrosse coach Pamella Jenkins told the paper.
"Unfortunately this is our reality daily and when they go low we must go high. I'm proud of how our team stayed calm and especially proud of Mica Lambert for asking the officer a thought-provoking question. It's been a stressful few days, but our team handled that tense situation with the utmost class and respect."
One of the students on board, Saniya Craft, is a relative of Elijah McClain and was unsurprised but deeply affected by the incident.
"As a family member of Elijah McClain, I've realized what happens when police take advantage of their privilege and compromise their job," she noted.
"After seeing the police brutally murder my relative, I was petrified for what would happen to my teammates and I. As women of color, we are constantly facing adversity and this was an incident we had to overcome together."
Liberty County Sherriff William Bowman is reviewing the incident but has said that to his knowledge, no racial profiling took place. He asserted the vehicle was one of many stopped that day and that in other instances, contraband was found.
