School administrators at a small liberal arts college in Pennsylvania are investigating a report of a student scratching a racial slur onto another student’s chest at an on-campus residence this month.
Both the student who wrote the slur and the student who was scratched were on the swim team at Gettysburg College in Gettysburg, Pa. The school and the family of the targeted student said in a joint statement on Sunday that the investigation was almost finished and that the student who scratched the slur was no longer enrolled at the college. It was not immediately clear whether the student was expelled or had decided to leave.
The names of the students have not been made public. The family of the targeted student had said in a statement published on Friday in The Gettysburgian, the college newspaper, that their son became “the victim of a hate crime” when a teammate used a box cutter to etch a slur against Black people across their son’s chest at an informal swim team gathering on Sept. 6.
They said that their son had been the only person of color at the gathering and that the teammate had been a “trusted” friend. Their son was later interviewed by members of the swim team’s coaching staff and then dismissed from the team, according to their statement. It was unclear on Sunday whether his status had changed.
The school and the family are now having conversations about “how most constructively to move forward,” they said on Sunday.
“The college and the family both recognize the gravity and seriousness of this situation and hope it can serve as a transformative moment for our community and beyond,” the statement read.
Earlier, the family said that they supported the school’s investigation but that they had filed complaints citing racial discrimination, harassment and lack of due process with the N.A.A.C.P.’s Harrisburg chapter, the N.A.A.C.P. Pennsylvania conference and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission.
The chief of police in Gettysburg, Robert W. Glenny Jr., said in a statement on Sunday that he had reached out to the college campus safety department after seeing news reports. But Mr. Glenny said the victim has so far chosen not to report the matter to the police and to let the school handle the matter. He added that they did not know the identities of the students involved.
In an email sent to students last week, Robert Iuliano, the school’s president, underscored his “profound distress about what happened, its impact on those who have long been underrepresented on this campus and its implications for a community continuing its evolving efforts to create a truly inclusive environment.”
“No matter the relationship, and no matter the motivation, there is no place on this campus for words or actions that demean, degrade or marginalize based on one’s identity and history,” he added.
Mr. Iuliano said that the incident had first been reported by upper-class students from the swim team.
Of the 2,207 students at Gettysburg College, 62 percent are white and 21 percent are nonwhite from the United States, according to the school’s official website. International students make up 14 percent.
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