Isaiah Meyer-Crothers releases statement on Mitchell Miller saga

One of the few people we had not heard from in the Mitchell Miller mess had been the victim of his school-age, racially-tinged bullying, Isaiah Meyer-Crothers. Now we have, and it’s heartbreaking.

Eustace King, the agent for Miller, went on the Cam & Strick podcast on Monday night to say that Miller and Meyer-Crothers had actually been mending fences between them and were on the road to recovery.

But in a statement released by Meyer-Crothers through the Hockey Diversity Alliance, which has been in close contact with victim’s family since he was originally drafted by the Arizona Coyotes in 2020, Meyer-Crothers vehemently refutes that notion.

Here is Isaiah Meyer-Crothers statement, which according to the HDA was “lightly edited for brevity and clarity.”:

“I have been bullied since I was in 1st grade.

“There were not many black kids at my school. I was called ‘brownie’ and ‘N—–.’ ”

“Kids said my black mom and dad didn’t love me and that’s why I had white parents. Mitchell used to ask me to sit with him on the bus and then he and his friends would punch me in the head. This happened my whole time in school.

“When I went to junior high Mitchell would spit in my face and call me the N word. I stopped telling because they called me a snitch and I would get made fun of. I had to say I was ‘his N—–‘ to sit at his table and he made me clean the whole table. He threw food in my face. I was called ‘N—-‘ every day.

“The office told me to stay away from him because he wasn’t my friend. Once he got expelled from school, his friends started bullying me.

“He pretended to be my friend and made me do things I didn’t want to do. In junior high I got beat up by him.

“Everyone thought he was cool, but I don’t see how someone can be cool when you pick on someone and bully someone your entire life.

“Middle of October, I was being texted constantly every day till I answered a Snapchat and an IG message from Mitchell Miller. He asked me why I always have my parents doing stuff for me and why can’t I speak for myself.

“I told him I don’t care what my parents say I’m old enough to speak for myself. He told me he was sorry and (that the apology) didn’t involve hockey.

“He told me he was doing stuff in the community and helping the youth and wanted to be my friend.

“I told him ‘That’s all cool but where is the proof though?’

“He didn’t give me any.

“All the lies I have been told by him for so many years I don’t believe what Mitchell told me.

“He kept asking me to be his friend and that he has changed over the years from what he did.

“I told him ‘I’m not just gonna be your friend after all you did to me.’

“I am now getting messages from people on social media from people, calling me a ‘slow, retarded assclown’ and ‘you stupid N—–‘ saying that I need help.’

“Mitchell isn’t my friend. It hurts my heart what he did to me.

“So I just wanted to tell everyone – when Mitchell says we’re friends it isn’t true.

“I can’t take more of this.”

The Bruins signed Miller on Friday and reaction to it was almost universally and viscerally negative. Two days later, the B’s announced that they had “parted ways” with Miller. But just how they’re going to get out of the contract remains to be seen. Unless they can show just cause for terminating the contract – and there’s some question as to whether the team feels they were misled in the process by Miller’s people – they could come to an agreement with Miller and his representation. They could also wait until the next buyout period and buy him out, which would nick them a bit on the salary cap.

 

 

 

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/NXskVGg