University Of Missouri Investigating 'Online Threats' Amid Racism Protests
UPDATE 10:10 a.m. EST -- University of Missouri Police identified the suspect as Hunter M. Park. He is accused of making terrorist threats.
UPDATE: 7:30 a.m. EST -- The University of Missouri announced early Wednesday that police have apprehended a suspect who posted threats against the campus on YikYak and other social media platforms.
“The suspect is in MUPD (University of Missouri Police Department) custody and was not located on or near the MU campus at the time of the threat,” the university said, in an update on its website.
The online threat forced authorities to increase security at the campus where weeks of protests over racial discrimination continued Tuesday.
Original story:
The University of Missouri is investigating online threats against members of a student body, targeting black students. However, school authorities said late Tuesday that there was “no immediate threat to campus.”
Protests continued Tuesday following the resignation of the university's president and its chancellor. The growing backlash erupted after allegations of racial tensions on campus and officials' alleged inaction. The University of Missouri system's governing board has planned to meet Wednesday afternoon over the latest incident.
Amid tensions on campus, the university’s student government president Payton Head also came under fire for a Facebook post that claimed the campus had a KKK presence. However, Head's post was taken down and he later apologized, reportedly saying that he shared misinformation “in a state of alarm.”
“I received and shared information from multiple incorrect sources, which I deeply regret. The last thing needed is to incite more fear in the hearts of our community,” Head wrote.
The situation at the university turned critical Monday when university system President Tim Wolfe stepped down, followed shortly afterward by Chancellor R. Bowen Loftin.
"This is just a beginning in dismantling systems of oppression in higher education, specifically the UM system," Marshall Allen, a member of the protest group Concerned Student 1950, reportedly said.
Wolfe announced his resignation after a student activist launched a hunger strike and the school's football team threatened to stop playing -- a move that would have cost the school at least $1 million in forfeiture funds.
Following Wolfe's resignation, the school on Tuesday named Chuck Henson, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Trial Practice at the University of Missouri School of Law, as its first-ever head of diversity, inclusion and equity.
On Tuesday, Melissa Click, a professor at the university, stepped down from her courtesy appointment at the journalism school after facing backlash for her confrontation with members of the media during a protest Monday on campus.
“I regret the language and strategies I used, and sincerely apologize to the MU campus community, and journalists at large, for my behavior, and also for the way my actions have shifted attention away from the students’ campaign for justice,” Click wrote, in a statement.
A video surfaced Tuesday showing Click challenging student Mark Schierbecker and calling for "muscle" to help remove him from the protest area, according to the Associated Press (AP). Schierbecker was reportedly filming a confrontation between a student photographer and protesters.
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