Campbell’s brother and ex-girlfriend say it’s shocking to see the 19 year-old honor student in court. The student has been suspended and banned from campus pending the outcome of legal proceedings and the university’s student conduct process, officials said in a news release.
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WWU canceled classes on Tuesday before Thanksgiving because of threats against students of color on social media. There is no quick pill to fix racism. Alex Ng, a graduate student in the colleges teaching program, expressed optimism that something can be done to make Western more comfortable for minority students, but he said non-white students and professors cant be expected to do all the work. The school says more of these meeting will be held. “I think it was a very speedy result where they were able to track down the IP address and the person, so I think they did pretty well”.
Classes were canceled last Tuesday at the university in Bellingham, some 90 miles north of Seattle, after officials found the hateful online messages.
Other black students disagree, saying the university did not act fast enough on previous complaints.
Campbell’s mom tells Seattle Times her son was annoyed over an uproar on campus and that he was being sarcastic and deleted the post right away.
The university worked with Yik Yak, an anonymous social media platform popular among college students, to learn names of the commenters, who posted pictures of a gun and references to lynching and nooses.
And Monday in Chicago, police arrested a 21-year-old black man in connection with social-media death threats against students and staff at the University of Chicago to avenge the death of a teenager killed by a police officer last year.
Western is the latest college to face hard conversations about race, during a season of tension on campuses across the country.
Student Body President Belina Seare says hateful messages poured in targeting her and other students after they were named in a discussion about possibly changing the school’s mascot.
WWU President Bruce Shepard, who’s been criticized by the targeted students for what they have characterized as a slow, inadequate response to the threats, offered an apology at Monday’s meeting to those students, as well as to faculty and staff.
The university then notified students, faculty, and staff that Campbell was under arrest.
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“Racism is like a cancer”, Estrada said.
