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A student has admitted to spraying racist graffiti messages in an apparent hoax at a Michigan college, leading to protests and outrage from school administrators, according to reports.
The student wasn’t immediately named by the college, but police identified him as a 21-year-old black male, Albion Department of Public Safety Chief Scott Kipp said, Mlive reported.
Authorities have confirmed the crime was an apparent hoax and the student identified is responsible for most of the vandalism, which occurred between March 28 to April 6 at Albion College.
The student tagged several walls of the private college with the phrases “KKK,” “White Power,” and “Die [explicit] Please,” according to pictures posted to Facebook of the vandalism.
“Earlier today, we identified the individual responsible for the racist and anti-Semitic graffiti in Mitchell Towers,” the liberal arts college said in a statement on Wednesday.
“The student, who was acting alone, acknowledged their responsibility for these incidents, and was immediately removed from campus and placed on temporary suspension while we conduct a full investigation as part of our student judicial process,” the college continued.
The campus didn’t immediately identify the student publicly in their statement, although Albion College President Mathew Johnson told the Washington Examiner that the individual responsible for the vandalism is “a student of color” who was immediately removed from the campus while an investigation into the incident is ongoing.
“All evidence has been turned over to law enforcement in cooperation with the ongoing criminal investigation,” Johnson said. “We do not have any additional information to provide at this time as the student judicial process and criminal investigation proceed.”
About 200 students and staff at the college marched for at least three days around the campus, boycotting classes, and urging the college administration to be more transparent and urge for safety at the campus.
“Moving forward I want the president to reach out to our community and let us know that we deserve to be here,” freshman Brooklyn Tripp told WWMT at the end of March. “From what I’ve seen, no one cares.”
The college said on Twitter they encourage everyone in the community to care for one another.
