Sophia Rosing, a former University of Kentucky student, has been sentenced to 12 months in jail, to be served in protective custody, for assaulting a black student worker and repeatedly using a racial slur.
Rosing pleaded guilty to charges of assault, disorderly conduct, and public intoxication. In November 2022, Rosing, a white, assaulted Kyla Spring, a then-19-year-old black student worker, using racial slurs during a drunken incident at a campus residence hall, as reported by the New York Post.
According to authorities and video evidence, Spring had initially approached Rosing to check on her due to her apparent intoxication but was instead subjected to the violent attack.
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“The girl starts saying things like ‘Do my chores,’ ‘It’s not my fault that you’re black,’ ‘It’s not my fault that you’re ugly,’ and at this point, she’s like singing the N-word,” Spring recalled.
Rosing, now 23, continued her disruptive behavior even after police arrived, allegedly kicking and biting an officer during her arrest.
Following the racist attack, the University of Kentucky banned Rosing, who was a senior at the time, from campus.
Fayette Circuit Court Judge Lucy Vanmeter sentenced Rosing to 100 hours of community service in addition to her prison term, as reported by the Courier Journal.
Rosing’s lawyer, Fred Peters, criticized the prison sentence as “excessive” in an interview with the Lexington Herald-Leader.
Due to the nature of her offenses, Rosing will serve her prison sentence in protective custody at the Fayette County Detention Center, her lawyer explained.
“What she said was awful,” Peters told the news outlet.
“She got into a scuffle with the clerk and bit people on the hand, [but] I think she did not deserve a sentence of 12 months in prison for the very first offense her in life.”
