The phrases splashed across the entire left side of a Curry Hall sixth floor bulletin board. Expressions most would consider hurtful—deep cutting terms that anyone would agree contain power—but the power of hate.
“Blacks shouldn’t exist,” one stated. “I hate n***ers,” the bordering phrase proclaimed.
Discovered the Sunday after spring break by a freshman student, the malice-filled words were removed immediately, and then reported to campus authorities by the same student’s parent three days later.
If the incident transpired the day it was first seen, it would have occurred the exact day a viral video was published involving University of Oklahoma fraternity Sigma Alpha Epsilon singing a racist chant. The video got national media attention and resulted in the fraternity being dismissed—the students directly involved were expelled.
Director of Residents Life and Residential and Commuter Life, Josh Blakely, gave details about when the crime occurred. “It was not on the board when we closed for spring break, and we learned it was on the board when students returned—so it definitely happened during spring break.”
Longwood Police immediately opened an investigation and classified the two phrases as a hate crime because of their vandalism nature and relation to identity and class.
According to Director of Citizen Leadership and social justice education Jonathan Page, this is the first reported case of hate crime at the university this year.
Page and Blakely constructed a response email that was sent out to residents of Curry stating their disappointment and publicizing the fact that they planned to take action.
“It is with a sense of sadness and disappointment that we report to you a bias related incident that occurred in our very community,” the email said. “We, like you, take this matter very seriously, and this sort of behavior is not acceptable in our community and will not be tolerated.”
Pages 13 and 14 of the 2014-2015 Longwood student handbook say, “Any offense motivated by bias will not be tolerated.”
It later clarifies bias as, “Any offense wherein the accused intentionally selects a target based on political affiliation, sexual orientation, gender, age, marital status or inclusion in any group protected by law.”
The “harassment, hazing and abusive behavior” policy found on page 84 of the handbook outlines sanctions related to bias.
“Bias-related incidents that fall under the definitions of the Conduct Code as violence or abuse are charged as such through the University disciplinary system,” the policy says. “Students who are found responsible will, when appropriate, be given sanctions designed to educate them about intolerance.”
According to the handbook, because of “legal/liability reasons” Longwood does not have specific conduct code violations regarding speech codes or bias-related acts.
“There could be many different charges in this case,” said Blakely.
If someone is found responsible, Blakely said it would at least get processed through the university’s disciplinary system, though legal action could be sought as well.
The bulletin board had originally been assigned as a medium where students on the hall could speak out. Blakely said it was expected to be a safe place where students could express themselves.
“These things are going to happen,” said Longwood Dean of Students Larry Robertson. “The more important thing is for people to know how we are going to respond. When we know about it, we are going to do what we can do about it.”
Page gave precedent to the situation, saying it isn’t any different from similar vandalism you would find anywhere else.
“If you see this type of graffiti in a bathroom stall it’s just as egregious,” he compared. “We tend to disregard graffiti we see in a bathroom stall, but it’s the same. Because we allow it to exist and we don’t say anything it gives us license to ignore it when we see it elsewhere.”
Blakely said that the key to moving forward is informing people in the community and having discussions about vital topics.
“The only way to combat negative speech [is] with positive speech,”Blakely said. “And education is a part of that. We’ve got to ramp this up so everyone knows they are included here and welcome here.”
“This stuff does happen at Longwood—it does happen in Farmville…we can’t continue to say it doesn’t happen here,” said Robertson. “We often think these things don’t happen in our back yards, and they do. It can be an eye opening experience to see [that] it does happen here.”
If you have any information that would help with the investigation, call campus police 434-395-2091.
*NOTE: After this article was published, Longwood University contacted The Rotunda clarifying LUPD has not yet "officially" named this incident a hate crime--a fact previously said to be official in the interviews conducted for this story.