Shaw University

A historically Black university in North Carolina says it has filed a complaint with the Department of Justice seeking a review of a search of a bus carrying students during a traffic stop in South Carolina last month. Shaw University President Paulette Dillard has accused law enforcement officers of racially profiling students traveling to a conference in Atlanta. Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright called the accusations false, saying officers stopped the bus because it was swerving. Dillard says the issue is how the alleged minor violation turned into a drug search. The complaint states that a lane violation would be insufficient justification for a search and students' privacy was violated because they didn't consent to a luggage search.

A South Carolina sheriff is pushing back on a historically Black university president's statement accusing law enforcement officers of racial profiling in a recent bus stop. Shaw University President Paulette Dillard wrote she was "outraged" after law enforcement officers in Spartanburg County on Oct. 5 stopped a contract bus transporting students from the HBCU in Raleigh, North Carolina to a conference in Atlanta. Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright emphasized at a Monday morning press conference that police officers stopped the unmarked, "Greyhound-like bus" with tinted windows because it had been swerving. "This case right here has absolutely nothing to do with racism," Wright said.