SEATTLE — After a racially biased threat on social media sparked anger on a quiet Washington state campus, college officials sent students home a day early for the Thanksgiving holiday.
Western Washington University sent out an alert canceling classes and an email to students just after 6 a.m. Tuesday from President Bruce Shepard. It is unknown whether the people who posted the threats are students at the university in Bellingham, but the posts were made from a phone that was within 10 miles of campus, Shepard said.
“I need to be very clear here: we are not talking the merely insulting, rude, offensive commentary that trolls and various other lowlifes seem free to spew, willy nilly, although there has been plenty of that, too. No, this was hate speech,” Shepard wrote in an email posted on the university website.
A series of threats against members of minority groups was posted over the weekend on Yik Yak, an anonymous social media platform popular among college students.
The posts mentioned almost every ethnic group, including blacks, Muslims, Jews and American Indians, blaming them for an effort on campus to debate changing the university’s mascot, a Viking. The threats came days after some student leaders suggested that the mascot is racially biased. The posts did not mention a specific action against the students.
Most of the online comments contained racially biased language and profanity, making fun of the mascot debate and the students who proposed it. One post called black students crying babies, and another complimented the school for having an “overtly Aryan” mascot.
The university of about 15,000 students boasts that nearly a quarter of its enrollees are from minority groups. The small campus about 90 miles north of Seattle is known for its environmental education program. The college also sends more graduates into the Peace Corps than any other midsized university in the nation.
Law enforcement officials do not believe there is a threat to general campus security, but Shepard said a threat to any Western Washington University student is an attack on the whole college community. The decision to cancel classes was precautionary and to make sure students were safe, he said. The school’s Thanksgiving break officially begins today.