Your Black Bloggers The official gathering spot for black bloggers
SEATTLE (AP) — Most, but not all, students returned to a Washington state university Monday as police arrested a 19-year-old accused of making racial threats against black students and others on social media that shut down the campus last week.
Western Washington University police in Bellingham arrested the male student on campus and booked him into jail on suspicion of felony malicious harassment. 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.
At a public forum Monday about the racist remarks, one student said she had to force herself to come to the school to speak about the threats.
“Frankly, I’m exhausted. This isn’t an ‘if’ but ‘when they come after you’ situation. I’m upset that Western let it get to this point,” said Lulu Sapigao, adding that students have been saying for a long time that they don’t feel safe on campus. “I’m upset that we’re told to use the buddy system, and that’s the only way that we can maybe have safety.”
Administrators canceled classes last Tuesday, the day before the scheduled Thanksgiving break, after learning about the remarks that included threats of violence against the student body president, who is black.
The university is working with Yik Yak, an anonymous social media platform popular among college students, to turn over the names of the commenters, who posted pictures of the student body president, a gun and references to lynching and nooses.
