Student Sentenced for Ad Offering Black Teen as 'Slave'

An Illinois teenager who was charged with a hate crime two years ago over a Craiglist ad offering to sell a Black classmate as a slave has been sentenced to two years of probation, and authorities say they hope it will help him "mature into a productive member of society." The Naperville Central High School student was also sentenced to 100 hours of community service, NBC Chicago reports. In the November 2019 incident, the white teen, then 14, took a photo of his classmate and posted it on Craigslist in a "slave for sale" ad that included a racial slur, the Washington Post reported at the time.

The teen pleaded guilty last month to two counts of felony hate crime and one count of misdemeanor disorderly conduct, Newsweek reports. DuPage County State's Attorney Robert Berlin said hate crimes "have no place in a civilized society and will not be tolerated, regardless of the accused's age," per CBS Chicago. The teen was ordered to stay away from his classmate after his arrest in 2019. The victim's mother said at the time that the two had once been friends, but that ended after "he started teasing my son, calling him dumb, making fun of his skin color, saying 'shut up, slave.'" She said her son was "the butt of jokes for days," with other students telling him, "I'll buy you for a dollar." (More hate crime stories.)