Colorado university invites Native American teens pulled off tour back to school, will pay for travel

Colorado State University (CSU) is inviting two Native American teenagers back to the school after they were pulled from a campus tour when another student’s mother called the police.

The university on Friday also offered to refund the travel costs incurred by the two when they traveled to the school last week from their home in New Mexico, The Associated Press reports. 

Thomas Kanewakeron Gray, 19, and Lloyd Skanahwati Gray, 17, were questioned by campus police when one mother on the tour called the authorities, saying she found the teens’ behavior to be “really odd” but that she may be “paranoid.”

{mosads}

The brothers were eventually released, but the tour had moved on by that point. Their mother has told the AP they are not yet ready to respond to the university’s offer. 

School officials told students that while “we deeply regret the experience of these students” they maintain that campus police handled the situation properly.

“Two young men, through no fault of their own, wound up frightened and humiliated because another campus visitor was concerned about their clothes and overall demeanor, which appears to have simply been shyness. The very idea that someone — anyone — might ‘look’ like they don’t belong on a CSU Admissions tour is anathema,” school President Tony Frank wrote in an email to students and staff on Friday.