Jewish MSU Student Has Mouth Stapled Shut During Assault

A Jewish student at Michigan State University (MSU) was the victim of an alleged hate crime at a party near campus early Sunday morning, according to The Daily Mail. Nineteen-year-old Zach Tennen was leaving the shindig when he was approached by two men who asked if he was Jewish. Following a quick Nazi salute from his would-be attackers, the assault on the student commenced.

The men, who claimed to be members of the Klu Klux Klan, taunted Tennen with racial slurs and anti-Semitic remarks as they repeatedly punched him. Once the poor guy had passed out, the assailants proceeded to staple his lips shut. Several party-goers allegedly watched the whole thing go down before unceremoniously kicking Tennen out of the party.

“I’m really, really upset in a few ways,” the wounded student explained to the State News prior to his surgery. “First of all it is a terrible experience, physically and also mentally to know someone would do something like this. It almost seemed like they tried to kill me, and to think about that in my brain, physically — it isn’t very pleasant.”

Kent Cassella, Assistant Vice President for Media Communications for Michigan State University, issued the following statement on the matter:

“Michigan State University’s Student Affairs and Services office has reached out to the family of the student who said he was assaulted in East Lansing to provide the academic and other support the student needs. MSU will work with the student and his professors to ensure he can fulfill his academic requirements, as we would with any student in need. As the incident occurred off campus in East Lansing, all questions about the police investigation need to go the East Lansing Police Department.”

As a result of the attack, Zach Tennen suffered a broken jaw, which will have to be reset with a wire. The young man’s family recently contacted Anti-Defamation League over the attack, though the organization has yet to publicly address the subject as of this writing. Presently, the identities of the men who stapled Tennen’s mouth shut are unknown.