PRINCE FREDERICK, Md. — A petition to Calvert County State’s Attorney Robert Harvey and Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh recently emerged after charges were placed on five individuals earlier this week following a viral incident at Calvert High School.

Pictured Top R to L: Edge, Meredith
Bottom L to R: Hill, Aufderheide, Sellers

Kyle Edward Hill, Andrew Matthew Edge, Cade Allen Meredith, Augustine Robert Aufderheide, and Anthony Joseph Sellers III were all charged with two counts of malicious destruction of property less than $1000 and one count of fourth-degree burglary. This followed an incident on Aug. 9, where the group of 18-year-olds vandalized their old high school football field with racial slurs, vandalized classrooms, and damaged other miscellaneous areas of the school.

The group was never arrested, and their court hearings are currently set for Nov. 9 at the Calvert County District Court.

However, the charges against the group were not sufficient enough for many people across the Southern Maryland region.

A group known as the Calvert County Peaceful Resistance in Southern Maryland(PRISM) started an online petition a couple of days ago that has since garnered almost 2,000 signatures, claiming that the defendants have been “grossly undercharged.”

“Defacing school property with vandalism is a criminal charge that should always be taken seriously; however, the heinous lawlessness and show of hatred that was displayed by the Defendants on [Aug. 9] is much more serious than destruction of property,” the petition reads. “The men took time to spray-painted several different racial slurs onto the property, which makes their unspeakable actions to be considered a ‘hate crime.’”

The petition goes on to list points from the Maryland Code of Criminal Law and argues for State’s Attorney Harvey to hold the vandals accountable for the “irreparable” harm they have caused the community.

Another interesting note from the petition came when the author cited similarities between this case and a case from a Howard County high school not long ago.

“The defendant’s in the [Glenelg High School] case defaced the school property with hateful language aimed at their Black school principal. Likewise, the reprehensible events at Calvert High School transpired the day after a picture of the new African American principal surfaced on the internet,” the petition points out. “While the cases of Glenelg High School and Calvert High School are oddly similar, there is a vast difference in the charges that were applied to the defendants in the different cases. In the case of Glenelg, the teenagers were indicted on seven charges, one of which included a hate crime. While six of the charges were dropped during litigation, the charge that the defendants were found guilty of and sentenced [to three years in jail with various times suspended] was the hate crime.”

TheBayNet.com reached out to the Calvert County PRISM organization for a further statement but has not heard back as of this time.

“Undoubtedly, the facts of the case are well supported by Maryland case law and the state is likely to be successful in prosecuting the defendants with a hate crime charge,” the petition argues. “The actions of the defendants are inexcusable and should not be glazed over and swept under the rug by local authorities.”

To see the petition, CLICK HERE

Contact Zach at zach.hill@thebaynet.com