Members of UNLV’s Black Student Organization are calling on officials to do more to make students of color feel safe after a shooting threat found inside a bathroom two weeks ago rocked the campus.
The Black Student Organization held a peaceful protest Monday morning, putting the pressure on the University of Nevada Las Vegas to do more to protect Black students.
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The protest followed the university’s response to the shooting threat that was posted in a bathroom on campus targeting Black students and Bernie Sanders supporters, Las Vegas station KSNV reported. The students feel the school responded passively and want more action.
Students of all races came together during the demonstration, chanting “No justice, no peace” and “Black Lives Matter” as they marched through the campus, culminating with a rally at the Student Union.
The note in the bathroom warned of a racially-charged shooting that threatened for Oct. 16. The university did not cancel classes or events that day but increased police activity, the report states.
“I became aware of the threat late last week and have since been working with our law enforcement partners to determine the validity of the threat,” Adam Garcia, the associate vice president and director of University Police Services, said in a campus email blast on Oct. 14. “Today, out of an abundance of caution, it was decided to make the campus aware since neither the author of the note could be identified nor the validity of the threat be determined.”
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Members of the Black Student Organization say the did not find out about the threat until the school sent an email about it days after the shooting message was posted.
“The response was delayed. They didn’t let us know as soon as they found it,” a member of the organization’s e-board told KSNV. “They let us know too late, and made it seem as though the threat wasn’t really that deep, or that important.”
They are now calling out the university for not taking the threat seriously.