By Daniel Trotta
(Reuters) – A student at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania who scratched a racial slur onto the body of a fellow member of the school’s swim team is no longer enrolled there, the college newspaper reported on Sunday, citing an official statement.
The perpetrator and the victim had previously been suspended from the swim team pending an investigation. It was unclear from the college statement whether the perpetrator was expelled or left the school voluntarily.
“The investigation is nearing its conclusion, and we can report now that the individual who scratched a slur onto another person is no longer enrolled at the College,” Vice President for College Life Anne Ehrlich wrote in a campus-wide email, The Gettysburgian reported.
The incident occurred on Sept. 6 at a gathering of the swim team where the victim was the only person who was not white, according to a statement the victim’s family sent to the Gettysburgian on Friday.
The family said a box cutter was used, while the university previously described the instrument as “a plastic or ceramic tool.” It remained unclear how or whether the victim was restrained.
“The reprehensible act was committed by a fellow student-athlete, someone he considered his friend, someone whom he trusted. This student used a box cutter to etch the N-word across his chest,” the family statement said.
The family said it was considering whether to pursue criminal charges and that it had involved the NAACP civil rights organization and filed a complaint with the Pennsylvania Commission on Human Relations.
“Our son did not choose to have a hateful racial slur scrawled across his chest, but he has chosen not to return the hate,” the family statement said.
College President Bob Iuliano said in a statement to the campus community on Thursday that the college could not offer more details on the investigation nor could it comment on student matters that were governed by privacy laws.
“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,” Iuliano said.
Gettysburg, best known as the site of a Civil War battle in 1863 that killed thousands and where President Abraham Lincoln gave a moving speech four months later, is about 140 miles (225 km) west of Philadelphia.
(Reporting by Daniel Trotta in Carlsbad, California; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)
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