ITHACA--A white female student assaulted Sunday night leaving the Nappy Roots and Ludacris concert at Cornell's Barton Hall told The Sun that she was the victim of a hate-crime, which left her with a ruptured ear drum and thirteen stiches on her face.
The Cornell Police morning report noted that the police received a "complaint from a student that was physically assaulted by an unkown individual." The report indicated that the assault occurred at 11:47 p.m. and that the investigation is continuing.
The incident, as described by the victim, began when the student had a minor altercation with another girl who was at the concert while the performace was still going on.
"She said 'Get your white hair out of my face,'" the student said.
After the student put her hair up to get it out of the way, the alleged assailant proceeded to hit her, at which point the student and her friends moved to the back of the concert space.
When the concert was over, the student separated from her friends to get into her car and said she found herself surrounded by a group made up of five black females and one black male, who have yet to be identified.
"They said they were gonna f**k up my pretty white face," she said.
Allegedly, the incident turned physically violent when one of the girls slapped the student hard enough to rupture her eardrum, a blow which threw her off balance. The other five assailants proceeded to kick and punch her as she fell down.
"They pulled a ton of my hair out," the student said.
The six assailants stopped hitting the victim only when one of her male friends came out of the concert and stepped in.
"If it wasn't for [him], I don't know how long it would have gone on," she said.
The victim said doctors estimate it will take her eardrum a year and a half to heal.
"This was a hate crime, and it shouldn't happen to another person. The more people know the better," said the victim's mother.
The University is currently investigating the situation.
"We take any sort of hate crime very very seriously," said Linda Grace-Kobas, interim vice president for communications and media relations. "We will thoroughly investigate all aspects of the incident."
"I would encourage her to file a bias-related incident report," said Robert Harris, vice provost for diversity and faculty development. "We have a process and with a report we can begin putting that process to work."
Once an incident report is filed, a University employee is assigned the case to assist victims in pursuing their situation, according to Harris.
"It's really hard to live with this. I want people to know because I need to press charges. If anyone has any information, tell the police because [they] don't know anything right now," the student said.