SEATTLE (AP) - Western Washington University canceled classes on Tuesday because of threats over the weekend against minorities posted on YikYak, an anonymous social media platform populated by college students.
The university sent out an alert and an email to students just after 6 a.m. from President Bruce Shepard. It is unknown if the people who posted the threats are students at the state university in Bellingham, but the posts were made from a phone located 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.
The posts mentioned almost every ethnic group, including blacks, Muslims, Jews and American Indians, and talked about an effort on campus to debate changing the university's mascot, a Viking. The threats came days after some student leaders suggested the mascot is racist.
The school of approximately 15,000 students boasts that nearly a quarter of its enrollees are from minority groups. The small campus located 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 student is an attack on the whole college community. The decision to cancel classes was precautionary and the school wanted to make sure students were safe, he said.
"We take the feelings of safety of our students very, very seriously," he said.