Ten students are seeking legal counsel after being asked to leave a store in Meridian Mall - a request they say was based on race.

The students were shopping for Fake the Funk 11 outfits at the Deb Shop in the Okemos mall Oct. 23 when they were approached by a security guard.

They were told they were loitering, not shopping, and asked to leave, mall officials said. A store manager later told police the group was causing a disturbance in the store.

When the group asked to speak with a store manager, uniformed and off-duty security guards arrived to assist, the students said. Police from Meridian Township also arrived to aid mall security.

The students were escorted to the mall’s exit - but more than a week later, they said they still don’t know what they did wrong. Mall security, store management and mall management have not given a definitive answer regarding their removal, the students said.

“All of us are grown,” said communication junior Latonya Garth, who is black. “There is no reason why we were trying to run around in Deb and throw stuff around the store.”

Employees from the mall’s Deb Shop refused to comment, but a written statement from Deb Shops, Inc. said it is appropriate for security guards to respond when a large group that does not appear to have an interest in shopping is in the store.

“The company has a long history of equal opportunity/nondiscrimination and strongly denies any racial implications in this matter,” Deborah Timlin, director of store operations, said in a written statement.

Larry Parsons, Meridian Mall general manager, said the situation has been misinterpreted and grown beyond its original severity. Parsons said he was not aware of the incident until one of the students contacted him. No police report was filed.

“We have an exemplary record on relationships with minorities,” Parsons said. “We’re very regretful and disturbed about the allegations that this has turned into an issue based on race and not on behavior.

“We don’t target specific groups of people. We just look at activity and what’s going on.”

Parsons said each store may have a policy regarding large groups or behavior, but anti-discrimination laws still apply within the mall.

“That’s pretty much just the laws of the land and common decency,” he said. “Emotions got involved in this thing and it went a lot farther then it needed to.”

But the students, who received second place at the Fake the Funk 11 competition with outfits purchased from Rave and stores outside the mall, said they won’t be going back to the mall any time soon.

They are contacting the Michigan Civil Rights Commission, the American Civil Liberties Union and campus groups, hoping they may be able to bring legal action against the store and the mall.

“It threw us off, but it didn’t keep us from our goals,” said advertising junior Marcelle Bryant, who is black. “I came to MSU so I could learn how to interact with other groups. I did not come to get disrespected by them.

“This is 2001, and they’re acting like the Civil War just ended.”

The group of students say they worry too many people only think about what is on the outside.

Garth said she has let other acts of discrimination go, but not this one.

“I was embarrassed,” Garth said. “I feel like a crime was committed, and I didn’t do anything.

“It disturbs me that people can’t look me in my face in class because I’m black. I wish they could be black right now to see how it feels.”