Public Enemies: A Mother Called Police on Boys Wearing "dark" and "weird" T-Shirts

On April 30, two young Native American men wearing metal band shirts were pulled from a Colorado State University campus tour and questioned by the school’s police, following a call from a mother on the tour. The two teenagers—brothers Thomas Kanewakeron Gray, 19, and Lloyd Skanahwati Gray, 17—were late to the tour after driving seven hours from their New Mexico home to the Colorado campus. They were stopped after a “nervous” parent on the tour called campus police to report the teenagers. After the questioning, they were allowed to rejoin the tour, but since the guide was not aware of the detainment, the tour had already moved on. The Grays returned home.

Thomas was wearing a t-shirt for the death metal band Cattle Decapitation, while Lloyd was wearing a sweatshirt for Archspire, another death metal band. The mother, on her phone call, described the apparel as having “dark stuff” and “weird symbolism or wording on it.”

Colorado State has apologized to the Grays, offered to reimburse their expenses and bring them back to campus as VIP guests.

Archspire wrote on Facebook that the Grays are “not only deserving of but also entitled to both apology and compensation.” They’ve also invited the mother who made the campus police phone call to the band’s next Colorado show “to observe first hand just how positive, accepting and overall uplifting the ‘threatening’ lifestyle that these innocent brothers freely and publicly represent, actually is.” The Denver Post