South Brunswick Mom: Son Told To 'Move Your A** Out' Of Country

SOUTH BRUNSWICK, NJ — A South Brunswick family remains shaken this week after their 11-year-old son said he was told by an adult man at a local playground to "move your a** out of this country, you are a (expletive) Indian coming to our country to steal our jobs and money."

Update: South Brunswick police say they identified the man who allegedly made the comments to the boy, and he denied saying it. The mother of the child stands by her son, saying he is not a liar. Read the update to this story: South Brunswick: Man Denies Bias Remark To Boy; Mom Stands By Son

The Zuriki family has lived in South Brunswick for the past ten years. They live in the Kendall Park section of town and the boy is a sixth grade student at Crossroads South Middle School.

Tuesday was the first time they've ever experienced this kind of racism, the boy's mother, Racha Zeini, 37, told Patch.

"I was really shocked when (my son) came home and told me," Zeini said in a phone interview Thursday. "This is South Brunswick, a very diverse community. My kids have gone to all the public schools here for years and never had any issue. This is the first time I've heard of something like this happening here."

"This incident is totally inconsistent with the fabric of our community," said South Brunswick Police Chief Raymond Hayducka in a statement. "We have increased directed patrols of the park and detectives are following up to see if we can identify the man."

The afternoon of Tuesday, Oct. 1 was fairly mundane, the boy's mother recalled. Her children were home as public schools were closed for a religious holiday. At about 3 p.m. her 11-year-old son told her he was going to meet his friends at the Cambridge Elementary School playground, which is near their home.

"He rode his bike there. I was surprised when he came back just 15 minutes later and was very quiet and not talkative. He just went into his room," she said.

The boy refused to tell his mother what was wrong. But he confided in his older sister, a teenager. He told her that his friends weren't there but he saw a family of four at the playground, a mother, father and two elementary-aged kids. He said the father came up to him and said, "Move your (expletive) a** out of this country, you are a (expletive) Indian coming to our country to steal our jobs and money."

Zeini said her daughter, a high school student, told her what happened.

"I was shocked. Of course this is not acceptable," she said. "But I wanted to give this man the benefit of the doubt. I asked my son if he had any interaction with him beforehand or had said anything to provoke this. He said no. I know my son. He doesn't lie."

According to Zeini, her son told the man, "This is my country, sir" and got on his bike and rode home.

Her daughter wanted to return to the park immediately, but Zeini said both she and her son were too upset and didn't think it was a good idea.

"I just said at least he's safe," said the mom.

The next day, she posted something about the incident on the South Brunswick Community Facebook page. She said she was stunned by the outpouring of support.

"It got over 145 comments, all people telling me how sorry they were and that they support us and that we are welcome here," she said. "I had neighbors showing up at my front door telling me they are so sorry. It was amazing."

In fact, she said it was the strong Facebook reaction that prompted her husband, Ammar Zuriki, to take his son to South Brunswick police headquarters Wednesday evening to file a police report about what happened.

"The police were so nice; the officer who took the report told him he was doing the right thing," she said. "But I still feel nervous. I said I don't want him riding his bike alone anymore. But my husband said this is the opposite of what we should do, we should not be scared."

The mother of four said she wants her son's story told in the media. She and her husband are from Syria, but her four children were all born in America.

"Before this, we didn't think about race. My husband is an IT director. I work as a medical assistant at a doctor's office in Princeton. Everyone I work with is white, but it doesn't matter; we are a team," she said. "And part of the reason we love South Brunswick is because it is so diverse. My kids have friends who are Indian, white, black, Arab, all the different colors. That's the beauty of the U.S. No other country is like this, not even in Europe."

But Zeini said she's noticed a strong increase in racism and prejudice in the past three years in the United States.

"I just wasn't expecting someone in a lovely community like South Brunswick to have feelings like this," she said. "I just want to say that if this can happen in a place like South Brunswick, it can happen anywhere."

The South Brunswick schools superintendent, Scott Feder, declined to answer if they have security cameras at the playground. He did say they are investigating this incident as well.