Update on racist and threatening social media posts

Dear students,

As we settle into campus for the start of fall quarter, we want you to know that our community’s safety, security and wellbeing are paramount concerns for the university. With that in mind, we want to update you on the recent incident of threatening and racist social media posts that were authored by a Stanford student.

These horrible social media posts raised deep concerns and anxieties for many individuals in our community about their safety on campus. Knowing the level of concern for personal safety this incident has raised, as well as concerns raised by some on behalf of other community members, we hope to provide some reassurance by sharing, below, the latest information we are able to about this case:

• As President Tessier-Lavigne wrote you, the university took the immediate step of prohibiting the student who authored the highly offensive posts from entering Stanford’s campus or facilities.
• The student has been involved in a law enforcement proceeding, which predated this incident, in another state. He recently was arrested in that state due to a violation of bail conditions, and he remains in custody there now. The university is in touch with the authorities in this matter to stay informed.
• The student is not enrolled at Stanford. While privacy laws prevent us from sharing details, our administrative procedures resulting from the incident are proceeding.
• Our Office of General Counsel, Threat Assessment Team, Department of Public Safety, Division of Student Affairs and other university offices continue to be engaged in this matter to provide for the protection of our community.

We would like to thank the some 600 students who filed a report on these social media posts through our newly updated Protected Identity Harm Reporting process (formerly known as the Acts of Intolerance protocol). Student Affairs has reached out to all those who requested to be contacted as part of this process as well as to the individual students threatened.

The Protected Identity Harm Reporting process was developed with student input to provide a mechanism for hearing and addressing bias incidents that adversely and unfairly target an individual or group based on protected characteristics. We will be sharing more information soon on the details of this important process.

We hope this information is helpful to you in the interest of community safety as you begin the new academic year. We also hope you understand that the privacy laws that protect the rights of all students limit the information that can be shared about any matter involving an individual student and limit our ability to provide ongoing updates. Please know that we continue to pay close attention to this case and that care and concern for each of you, as Stanford students, remains deep and fervent.

Sincerely,

Susie Brubaker-Cole
Vice Provost for Student Affairs

Patrick Dunkley
Vice Provost for Institutional Equity, Access and Community