The Bruins rocked the hockey world on Friday when they announced the signing of Mitchell Miller, who was initially drafted by the Coyotes in 2020 but was renounced days later after it came to light that Miller bullied a Black classmate with a developmental disability in eighth grade.
The hockey prospect and another classmate were charged and convicted at the time in an Ohio Juvenile Court for the bullying, as reported by the Arizona Republic in 2020.
By Sunday, the Bruins decided to rescind the contract offer after facing significant backlash and a day after NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said the league may not clear Miller to compete if the franchise did promote him.
“He’s not coming into the NHL, he’s not eligible at this point to come into the NHL,” Bettman said. “I can’t tell you that he’ll ever be eligible to come into the NHL. If, in fact, at some point, they think they want him to play in the NHL, and I’m not sure they’re anywhere close to that point, we’re going to have to clear him and his eligibility.”
Come Wednesday, the Hockey Diversity Alliance released a statement from Isaiah Meyer-Crothers, the former classmate who was bullied by Miller. It was sent to sent to Akim Aliu, HDA chair, on Monday, and the statement detailed the abuse he endured.
“I have been bullied since I was in 1st grade,” Meyer-Crothers said. “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 a 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.”
Meyer-Crothers detailed how Miller beat him up when they were in middle school, and that the abuse continued despite Miller being “expelled from school,” as his friends started bullying Meyer-Crothers.
Miller and the classmate had to fulfill 25 hours of community service, undergo counseling, pay the court costs and issue an apology to Meyer-Crothers.
But in his letter, Meyer-Crothers detailed how he started receiving text messages in October until he responded to Miller’s Snapchat and Instagram messages. Miller apologized, and per Meyer-Crothers, said it was not related to hockey. However, when pressed for proof, Meyer-Crothers wrote in his letter that Miller “didn’t give me any [proof]. All the lies I have been told by him for so many years I don’t believe what Mitchell told me.”
