An Illinois high school student who posted a racist ad on Craigslist about a "slave for sale" was sentenced to probation and community service Wednesday, prosecutors said.
The Naperville Central High School student posted the ad with a picture of a Black classmate on the website in 2019. The ad included a racial slur, the DuPage County state’s attorney said.
The student, a juvenile whose name has not been released, was sentenced to two years' probation and 100 hours of community service, the prosecutors' office said. He had pleaded guilty Sept. 1 to two counts of felony hate crime and one count of misdemeanor disorderly conduct.
“Hate crimes have no place in a civilized society and will not be tolerated, regardless of the accused’s age,” State’s Attorney Robert B. Berlin said in a statement.
The judge also ordered the student to undergo any counseling deemed necessary, prosecutors said.
The mother of the targeted student told the Naperville Sun in 2019 that the two students were once close friends and that her son was taunted after the ad.
The defense attorney of the student who was charged said at the time that a formal apology would be made, The Associated Press has reported.
Naperville is a city of around 149,500 around 30 miles west of downtown Chicago.
