Hocking College Students Dealing With Racial Death Threats
PHILLIPS: Well, you know all kinds of stuff has been written on bathroom walls of college dorms, but at Hocking College, just southeast of Columbus, Ohio, something totally different and chilling. Someone wrote that black students would be killed on February 2nd. A sick prank or a real threat? The school, at least two students and the FBI aren't chancing it. Steve Wainfor from our affiliate, WCMH takes us to the campus.</s>STEVE WAINFOR, REPORTER WCMH (voice-over): Tucked away in the rolling hills of Hocking County is the Hocking Technical College. With a student body of just about 6,500, news travels fast.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It kind of bothers me a little bit. I'm not a big fan of that kind of thing.</s>WAINFOR: What is bothering most of the students is an incident at the Hocking Heights Residence Hall. A racial slur was written on the mean's bathroom wall. A lot of students were disturbed by this, while others just said it's part of college life.</s>WHITNEY BARTON, STUDENT: There's a lot of immaturity around here. I mean, a lot of kids are fresh out of high school. They're just being student.</s>WAINFOR: Whitney Barton lives in Hocking Heights and says some students have had enough and they're leaving campus.</s>BARTON: Yes, he just left today because of what's going on. He's going to go to AOU (ph) now.</s>WAINFOR: The Hocking College administration listened to the students and are in the process of amping up security by having more safety patrols, putting in more surveillance cameras around campus and offering to temporarily move students out of Hocking Heritage Residence Hall. An aggressive plan students feel comfortable with.</s>BARTON: Yes, it's good that they're stepping up and taking care of it because there would probably be a lot of people very upset if they didn't do anything.</s>WAINFOR: The Hocking College Police Department is working closely with the FBI during this investigation. As for the students, most feel safe here. With the new safety plan in place, they should feel that way even more.</s>PHILLIPS: All right. As we've heard, at least two black students aren't chancing it and they have actually left the school. The university isn't taking this sitting down. We're talking now with Hocking College president Ron Erickson joining us on the phone. Hopefully we'll talk with a student as well. So President Erickson, first of all, when you heard about this, what was your first reaction and how quickly did you react to these threats?</s>RON ERICKSON, PRESIDENT, HOCKING COLLEGE (via telephone): Obviously, we were very disappointed and shocked at the nature of the message that happened last and we put an incident team together as quickly as we could to begin to respond.</s>PHILLIPS: And I understand you've actually brought in a special counselor to deal with this. Could you clarify what that is about?</s>ERICKSON: Yes. We do have a fine counseling staff already here at Hocking College, but we did want to bring in additional resources for the possibility of an increased demand for their services. So we were able to enlist the participation of counseling faculty from Ohio University, which is our sister institution.</s>PHILLIPS: So President Erickson, let me ask you, you've got about - I just want to clarify the numbers. You've got about 6,300 students, 400 of whom are African-American, is that right?</s>ERICKSON: That's what the estimate is, yes.</s>PHILLIPS: Got it. So Jasmine Saunders, you're joining us on the line now. You are one of the black students that attends that college. Can you tell me, first of all, your reaction to what's happening right now on your campus?</s>VOICE OF JASMINE SAUNDERS, HOCKING COLLEGE STUDENT: I was actually very surprised. I knew there was always graffiti in our restrooms, I just never thought it would go to this extent. So it very much surprised me considering that it was my first day as a hall director that it happened. So surprising.</s>PHILLIPS: So do you fear for your safety, Jasmine, as a black student?</s>SAUNDERS: No, I o not fear for my safety. I believe Hocking College is taking every step measurable to make sure that the situation is taken care of. As soon as they heard about it, they were on it and they were taking care of the situation. If anything happens, it happens, but I believe we'll be able to take care of it within minutes.</s>PHILLIPS: Well, but how - just the fact that that graffiti was on the wall, the fact that the threats were there to kill these black students, even naming a date of February 2nd, what are race relations like, Jasmine, on that campus? Give us a reality check. Obviously there is some racism that exists, but how prevalent is it?</s>SAUNDERS: As of right now, everyone is getting along. The past two years I've been here, I feel everything has been OK, everyone has been pretty friendly with me. I haven't seen anything. I've just heard things from people who said that they have experienced a couple people not wanting to talk to them because they might have been African-American, Hispanic or even some of the black students who don't talk to some of the white students. But it's not really that big of a deal on campus.</s>PHILLIPS: Not a big deal on campus. President Erickson, are you surprised that this is a mentality that exists, whether it's a small number of people or a larger number of people, just the fact that this 1950s mentality is even hitting your campus?</s>ERICKSON: Well, surprise, perhaps not. Certainly dismayed. I myself am the parent of biracial children and so even as a parent I've certainly experienced bigotry and prejudice against my own children.</s>PHILLIPS: Wow.</s>ERICKSON: But we're certainly taking every possible measure to make sure that this kind of thing does not happen again.</s>PHILLIPS: Well, it hit us close to the heart too and we hope that we can somehow bring about a message that whoever did, this we'd like to see them caught and held accountable. I know the FBI is now involved. Jasmine Saunders, thank you so much. Also President Ron Erickson. President Erickson, will you please keep in touch with us and let us know how this goes and if indeed you do find these pretty cowardly people that did what they did.</s>ERICKSON: We certainly will, thank you.</s>PHILLIPS: Jasmine, thank you.</s>SAUNDERS: Thank you.</s>PHILLIPS: Now voices of hope. Victims of the earthquake break out in song, living in the streets but staying incredibly strong.