Evanston, IL and Another ‘Hate Crime’ That Never Happened

In May of 2022, three nooses were found tied to a small tree outside Haven Middle School in Evanston, IL. Here’s a local news report that captured the immediate reaction to the discovery. This is only about a minute long.

It turned out there were two students present when the nooses were tied. Over the weekend, the parents of one of those students told their version of what happened that day. It all started on a day that students held a protest over some teachers who were being reassigned to different schools. That protest turned into complete chaos and police were called to the school.

On that same day a 6th grader walked outside and began tying some ropes from a recess bin into nooses.

By lunchtime, what had begun as a peaceful protest devolved into what one teacher described to me as “an absolute mob scene.” Inside the school, seventh and eighth graders were running through the hallways, slamming locker doors shut, and chanting “Fuck Latting,” referring to Haven’s principal, Christopher Latting. Someone called the police.

a sixth grader…pulled three jump ropes out of a recess bin and started tying them in knots.

He started fashioning them into nooses. He made three. Another child saw that he seemed upset, so he ran up to [Mike] Klotz’s son and asked him to come speak to his friend. Klotz’s son crossed the yard to ask the boy what he was doing—and checked if he was okay.

The two friends spoke a little. Then the child who made the nooses hung them on a small, shrub-like tree, and the two boys ran off to another part of the yard, leaving the ropes hanging a few feet off the ground.

Within hours, every parent in the district had received an email from superintendent Devon Horton about the nooses found on the tree. Horton was a big proponent of anti-racist education and his email left no doubt what had happened.

“This is a hate crime and a deliberate and specific incidence of an outwardly racist act. It resounds with a tone of hate and hurt that will impact members of our entire community, namely Black and African American students, staff, and families who have experienced generations of harm.”

Mike and Melissa Klotz, who are both left-wing, got a call from the father of the 6th grader who had tied the knots. He admitted his son had done it and said their son was also involved. But after asking around, Mike Klotz was convinced that his son hadn’t done anything except go to check on his friend when asked to do so.

Meanwhile, the Haven “hate crime” was the major topic of discussion at the school, not just between classes but in class. Nearly a week later, Klotz’ son, and the other boy who tied the knots, were placed on administrative leave while the incident was under investigation by the police. That investigation took six weeks, causing both of them to miss the end of 6th grade.

But in mid-June, police finally concluded the nooses had been tied by one boy but were not intended as a racial threat. On the contrary, the final report saw them as a “cry for help.”

The final, 33-page police report detailing the authorities’ investigation —which Klotz showed to The Free Press after it was made available via a Freedom of Information Act request—states that the boy responsible for putting the ropes in the trees “has some very serious mental health issues and has tied knots previously as a soothing technique.”

According to the report, police spoke to a Haven student who said she watched a boy “place the rope over a tree, and put the noose around his neck for approximately 1 to 2 minutes.” She said the boy had a “look on his face” that was “serious,” and he “appeared as though he did not want to be there.” She told police other students there were worried he might “harm himself,” but added: “The tree the rope was placed over was not big enough to hold his weight.”

This was a troubled kid maybe signaling he wanted to harm himself, not a hate crime. But superintendent Horton promised the district would continue to investigate to determine how to respond. A parent group called “District 65 Parents & Guardians” also rejected the police conclusions and demanded the student and the family be identified. And Kim Foxx’s office referred the matter to juvenile court, threatening the 5th grader with a misdemeanor for disorderly conduct. The juvenile court eventually dropped the matter.

The Klotz’s son really had no part in the nooses and there was no hate crime here anyway. Nevertheless, they decided to move, leaving Evanston for another town about 6 miles away, so their son could start the new year in a new school district. Unfortunately, he really hasn’t recovered. Formerly a straight A student, the boy now struggles in school. As for his parents, they now feel adrift from the progressive politics they have always believed in.

Melissa [Klotz] told me that what happened to her son completely changed her perspective on life. She said she’s now cynical about politics, and she’ll never vote again.

“I’ve lost faith in everything,” she said. “Now I just assume all people are bad people, unless they can prove otherwise.”

As for Superintendent Devon Horton, he moved on to a new job in Georgia about one year later. All of his anti-racist efforts don’t seem to have accomplished much for students in Evanston.

Last November, a district-wide “Equity Progress Indicator” report showed that the racial achievement gap in Evanston has actually been widening. The percentage of black students meeting standards in language arts dropped from 33.4 in the 2023-24 school year to 31.7 the following year, whereas that same metric for white students stayed consistent, at around 82 percent. In the meantime, enrollment in District 65 has continued to fall.

But Horton did enjoy one notable achievement: In November 2022, just six months after the Haven “hate crime” incident, the National Alliance of Black School Educators named him “Superintendent of the Year.”

He generated a lot of reactions to a “hate crime” that never happened and won an award for his efforts.