A new racist development occurred in Gettysburg.
According to CNN, a student-athlete is no longer enrolled at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania after allegedly “etching a racial slur onto the chest of a teammate,” school officials said.
At an informal gathering for the swim team in an on-campus residence, someone used a box cutter to scratch the n-word onto another student’s chest, according to statements from the college and the family of the victim.
“The reprehensible act was committed by a fellow student-athlete, someone he considered his friend, someone whom he trusted,” the family said in an anonymous statement published last week by the college’s student newspaper, The Gettysburgian.
Still, it isn’t clear if the swimmer was expelled or has merely faced disciplinary action.
A spokeswoman for the college, Jamie Yates, said to CNN that the person is no longer enrolled at the college, and that’s all he or she could say. As of right now, none of the students involved have been identified.
Gettysburg College and the family said that the investigation is ongoing.
“(They) recognize the gravity and seriousness of this situation and hope it can serve as a transformative moment for our community and beyond,” the statement said.
President of Gettysburg College, Bob Luliano, castigated the student’s actions in a message last week and thanked the swim team’s upperclassmen for first reporting what had happened.
“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 said.
A letter to the school community Monday said the “college found the incident was not a byproduct of an unhealthy athletic team culture or a reflection on the team itself.”
“We are upset. We need to acknowledge the harm the incident has imposed on members of our community who by virtue of their identity, race, culture, and history have long been marginalized in our society through language and actions precisely like those that took place,” he wrote in the letter.
