While public high schools cancel classes from time to time in light of threats, it is rare for a Washington public university to do so, according to officials at other state universities.
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Western Washington University President Bruce Shepard was so mad at the “hate speech” he saw on social media Monday against “students of color” that he sent the community a stream-of-consciousness missive with ALL CAPS, punctuation errors and repeated references to “trolls” and “lowlifes”.
It is unclear if the suspects behind the hate speech are students.
This isn’t the first time Yik Yak has encountered reports of racism found on their messaging app. University of DE experienced a racially-charged controversy, and threats found about University of Missouri caused many students to avoid campus.
He did not know if the perpetrators were among the 15,300 students at the school in Bellingham, about 90 miles north of Seattle.
Though Shepard said the messages did mention the Viking, he would not explain the context because it is part of a police investigation.
Western was due to begin its break from the Thanksgiving holiday on Wednesday. With disturbing social media content continuing through early this morning, students of color have advised me of their very genuine, entirely understandable, and heightened fear of being on campus.
The situation emerged as police in OR were investigating an unrelated assault on a black student at Lewis & Clark College by three white men on Friday. However, and I trust you stand with me on this: a threat to any one of us is an attack on all of us.
The university is giving support and protection to those who were specifically targeted by the posts.
Even with more debate and protests about racial issues sparking at colleges across the nation, such as the University of Missouri and Yale University, heated discourse is not common on this sleepy campus in the northwestern Washington woods.
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“Have no doubt: this is not a capitulation to those I described as trolls and lowlifes”.
